Keys and black bogeys!

Finally got the email from the solicitor saying completion had taken place and I literally couldn’t work for the rest of the day - too excited! Have had lots of kind wishes and congratulatory messages. Everyone keeps asking when we will be moving in and they’re always a little shocked when I say ‘oh not for another 8 months at least’!

The house is in St George, an area which the Estate Agent assured us is ‘Up and Coming’. There are some great little places there already (Bristol Loaf – an Artisan Café, The Dark Horse – nice pub selling pies), but I think it still has a lot of ‘upping’ to do. If you’re a fried chicken or a gambling fan though, then you’re set! Luckily a lot of my Bristol friends live close by, so we won’t be in the ghetto alone.

I had thought that this would just be an opportunity to have a celebratory drink, take some measurements and make plans, but Jon had other ideas and within 5 minutes I was getting stuck in with him, stripping the carpets.

Any vague notions we had had of finding beneath the crazy 1950s carpets, beautiful, vintage features or floorboards we could strip back, we were seriously deluded. Under the first layer of carpet there was either tattered lino or black underlay, which disintegrated when you touched it, filling the air with a horrible black dust. Beneath that there were battered planks that served as floorboards. We had known already that we would need to replace these because of the damp, so it was actually the kitchen that gave us the biggest shock. Underneath the lino were terracotta tiles, 4 inches thick, incredibly mouldy and lying on what appears at first review, to be bare earth. Getting rid of those is going to be a big job!

The crazy 1950s carpet!

Dad arrived at the house late because he had forgotten the address bless him, but somehow followed his nose to eventually find it. Both him and I were dressed completely inappropriately for house project work, so basically tinkered around the edges, filling the van up, while Jon did the hard graft. We met our next door neighbours on one side (Paul and Steph) and another couple from across the street. All very friendly and all had been very fond of the elderly lady who had lived in the house before us. Apparently she would have them in for tea and they would take it in the back room. The house was up together, just very dated. You could tell she had taken pride it in, and so I did feel a little sad ripping everything out so unforgivingly.

So in one evening we managed to remove all the carpets and lino. Finished at 9pm with black bogeys and dust encrusted hair!

Same again tonight. And tomorrow night. And for the foreseeable future…