The new look

The renovations are nearly there.   Finally.   Just the study ceiling, and the inside of the study door to paint. How did the door remain blue?   An oversight there.  It is a reminder of how carefully I painted all the doors blue with white inserts, 23 years ago.  But now all gone except for that door.  An autumn job for sure.   

We lifted the blue carpet, still in very good order and with a perfect underlay beneath it.   As Walter used the Stanley knife to cut it into stips, I felt a slight pang of wastefulness, but only a slight pang.   Then we found a beautiful pine floor underneath, which had once been stained.   I had forgotten about this floor.   But we had decided on carpet, so too late to change our minds at this stage.  

 The bathroom  cupboard received a makeover after 23 years of using it with scruffy and very old paint on the walls.  And to think many guests have used this cupboard in order to get towels out, and no comment was made about the deplorable state of the walls.   Too polite.   But now it is sparkling clean and white, and a new laundry basket at the bottom too.   The last one was a cast off from Aaron and Kylie.  Also very scruffy after many years of use.   The man who lay the lino in the bathroom very kindly used the left over scraps of lino to line the floor of the cupboard.

 Our new lino.  Clean.   Walter, with the help of Patrick, now needs to put a new front on the bath, to keep the spiders out of the room, and new white skirting boards around the edge, and all will be completed.   Patrick also installed a new shower as well as putting a new ceiling in, plus sparkling lights.   Now we have an even water temperature coming out of the shower nozzle instead of the hot/cold effect which had been our shower experience for a number of years.   The intense light does show up the imperfections of one's complexion, but this is a small price to pay for a bright and sparkling bathroom.

The entrance to the house is certainly much improved, once I finish painting the outside eaves.  It is amazing how new jobs keep appearing.   Will we ever really finish.   

No blue porch, which is now the same colour as the inside walls, and with white woodwork.   

The carpet went down on Friday, after a four day delay, due to the lounge carpet having a tear on one side, and the hall carpet, too small as result of the store misreading Walter's measurements.   But all resolved now, and I arrived home on Friday to see a light coloured carpet on the floor.   The carpet layer, same man who put the lino down, very kindly put left over carpet into the hall cupboard.   No photos here, as this cupboard still has the original paint on it, a very dark and gloomy cupboard with a ceiling somewhere in the heights above.  It holds the vacuum cleaner, suitcases, power board and numerous spiders too, no doubt.  Guests do not generally use this cupboard!

 The carpet really lightens the room.  But can we keep this carpet clean?   Good question.  At the moment there is no eating food in the lounge room, but as the lounge room is between the kitchen and the conservatory, where our table is, it will be only a matter of time before the first food spillage occurs.  Who will it be?

 Of course we cannot resist a small amount of blue, with the chair cover, cushions, and blue tablecloth.   But it is only a small amount, as we have restrained ourselves.   Patrick has put a new roof on our conservatory, after the storm at Christmas dislodged most of the roof, and rain poured in.   It is so strong now, nothing will move the roof, or guttering.   He also put in a new floor, which now matches the carpet very well.

The new look in the lounge room, cupboards still the same, but with newly painted walls, ceiling and woodwork, completed by Patrick during one weekend in May.  Plus new furniture and carpet.  Airy, clean and restful.  A lot less cluttered, and a determination to not fill it with magazines and books, as before.   Good intentions.

We are not after perfection though, and there are still many, many defects and oddities around the house, which is an old house afterall.   But we are really happy with our new look, we just need to spend some time enjoying it all.  

And taking bets on who will be the first person to spill something on the carpet.