House of Pain

Note to self: avoid DIY-ing on a hangover! The house this last weekend has literally been a house of pain and I blame the large quantity of prosecco and hot toddys consumed the night before whilst camping with the girls.

It started when I trapped my finger trying to close the downstairs toilet door (there's currently no handle). It escalated when I cracked my head on the doorframe climbing the ladder to paint the ceiling. And it culminated with Jon shutting a door (the bloody downstairs toilet door again!) on my face when I peered round to see what he was up to. I'm currently sporting a colourful shiner on my temple. Luckily this all happened after a lovely drop-in visit (with scones!) from Jon's Dad Dave and his wife Kate, so they didn't have to witness all the tears.

During a break in the rain a few weeks back, we took the first step in getting the decking area ready. Jon being Jon this was never going to be a bish-bash-bosh job. It involved careful calculations to work out hardcore and concrete quantities, and meticulous measuring to ensure the fall of the concrete drains water away from the house. This is our ticket to a damp-free house to be fair, so it is important.

After that we were able to get in a bricky Jon works with to build our garden wall. We had got everything ready, cleaned up all the old bricks (from various sections of the house we have demolished!) and selected the best ones, but then handing the whole brick-laying process over to Liam was just blissful. It only took him a day and he did such a lovely job.

We had previously made a 'back of a napkin' plan for the garden: where the beds are going to go, the path and of course, Jon's shed. But with the wall now built I can finally get a real feel for how it's going to look. I'm so excited to start bringing life to our little patch.

Staircase spindles, the bain of our lives! Jon did a great job of fitting the new ones, but that meant they then all needed painting. A few people had recommended using a mitt to speed up the process, but despite my persuasive skills (I thought the technique looked highly entertaining) Jon was not keen. By not keen I mean he firstly laughed and then point-blank refused to even try it as he said it would waste too much paint.

So 3 days, 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of gloss later, all meticulously applied with a paintbrush, we have painted spindles. Now is not the time to be thinking perhaps we should have chosen another colour!

I got a little carried away with the garden finally getting some attention and ordered a load of plants online, including a wisteria, which I was intending to plant at the back and train to grow along the wall. Imagine my surprise when I ventured out last weekend to find a stunning wisteria had just blossomed in that exact location! I think it's roots are in the opposite house to the left, but it's growing through all the gardens wonderfully and just needs some pinning to get it in order.

We are starting to make plans to relocate Maisie to the terrace, but it's proving a little contentious due to her unfortunate cat instinct to scratch any item you hold in esteem (and actively ignore any suggested alternatives!). Each time I suggest a room to be used as her base, Jon rejects it...the living room hosts our expensive sofa, the kitchen cabinets will immediate show up scratch marks, and she can't stay in with us as I'm such a light sleeper...I swear poor little Maisie is going to end up sleeping in the bathroom!

Maisie actually needs a special mention, as I really don't know what I would have done without her this past year. Working from home can be quite lonely, as Jon obviously has to be away on site all day for his job and is now living at the house during the week, so I have really appreciated her company and amusing little squeaky noises.