Christening the house

The big news is that the house has been Christened! No, no, not that, get your head out of the gutter! It was actually just Jon doing the Christening. He stayed over the first time last week, and will be spending more nights there from now on, using the extra hours in the evening to get things done. Aside from being a little chilly (only because he refuses to put the heating on) and resorting to using a saw(!) to cut a loaf of bread, he has survived and apparently the shower pressure is blissful. Not quite ready for Lady Jane yet though!

We are now doing what is generally considered the more 'fun' bits of a renovation...the decorating. Painting wardrobes for 2 days straight is not quite my idea of a good time, but in this COVID world, it's all relative! These wardrobes are truly a work of art and I am so proud of Jon for making them completely from scratch, but I perhaps would have resorted to a generic Ikea storage unit if I had known quite how long they were going to take. Hopefully will be able to show them with the doors on next time.

Painting the living room was a bit more fun as, despite me realising that I really suck at cutting in (for painting novices like myself "Cutting in" is the art of drawing a straight line, separating two colours using only the paintbrush), it has completely transformed the look of the room.

We went for Farrow and Ball - 'Green Smoke' in the end. A smokey green blue 'evoking calm and serenity' or, as Jon put it, Khaki. At this point, I feel the need to confess. Neither of us really had any idea what colour we wanted for this room, so we tried out alot of options, some quite random and extreme, and others more neutral. Jon liked a couple and got particularly attached to a deep blue, but for me it still wasn't quite right.

After lots of 'research' (aka stalking Instagram houses online), I found Green Smoke. FYI most people Googling 'Green Smoke' are not after inspiration on paint colours! I decided this was the one, I couldn't be dealing with buying another test pot, waiting for it to dry etc. Inexplicably (and irrationally) I just wanted to get that colour on the walls as soon as possible.

Popping to B&Q on my way to the house, I had it mixed and was about to pay when Jon called. He thought I was being a bit hasty, but said if I was 100% happy with the colour and that it was one of the test colours he had okayed, then to go for it. Eek! So a couple of little white lies...Green Smoke never touched the walls of our house until the day I applied it to the entire lounge! There was one sickening moment when it was still wet, when I thought shiiiiiit it looks like an army hideout, Jon is going to kill me, but thankfully once dry, it mellowed and I love it. And luckily so does Jon.

I thought it would be nice to include a few 'before' pictures of the lounge, so you can see the transformation. I shudder when I think of the early days during the Winter of 2019, when we had bare earth for floor!

Saying we are on the decoration makes it sound like we are nearly done, but there's still so much to do! As well as the finishes in every room, the areas still requiring a lot of work are: Attic room, hallways, downstairs toilet, all the flooring/carpets and the garden. With our sofa arriving in 3 weeks, the race is on!

Maisie

I love Maisie even more now that it's become clear that she has an unfortunate pin-head, just like me! And a pronounced ginger belly, which we googled to make sure was normal (yes we are pathetic, paranoid cat parents!) and is in fact her primordial pouch. Apparently it's a feature from back in her ancestor's wild days and is for storing food, to facilitate movement and provide extra protection against attack. Well, you learn something every day!