When Spring-Cleaning Goes Mad

Ho-hum.

It started with a little improvement in the weather, just enough nice-looking days to get cracking on painting the windows.

'Painting' then turned into major renovations inside and out - staff and parting beads off, new sash cords all around, sashes out, filling, sanding, replacing all the panes with minor damage.  (You understand that this is mostly what Mr U-t-B has been doing, not me.  I paint, and am capable of the filling and sanding bits (though quite frankly, I'd rather not) but the rest is a mystery to me!)  

The kitchen window...

The dining room bay...

Miss U-t-B's bedroom bay...

But once the kitchen window was finished it made the room look, well, grubby.  A bit of a spring-clean would sort it, surely?  Sugar-soaping the ceiling certainly made a difference, but once you've sugar-soaped,  you might as well give it a quick coat of paint, mightn't you?

The whiter-than-white ceiling just made the two papered walls look irrevocably tired.  Good thing I'd already been hunting for a replacement!

Bye bye Laura Ashley wallpaper.  You were nice and easy to live with, but I now want something with a bit more impact, and a little brighter.

Two loooonnnggg afternoons of wallpaper stripping followed, then an ideal opportunity to show Mr U-t-B that while he may be Mr Handyman Extraordinaire, I have earned my stripes in the decorating department.  Whilst he went out to watch 'Iron Man 3' (which he correctly predicted I would have no desire to see) I cut, pasted and shoved the new wallpaper up like someone out of  '60 Minute Makeover' (only with a slighlt more generous time frame, owing to the lack of minions to help).  

By the time he returned from the cinema, the papering was mostly done, and I was sitting, still a little damp from a shower, trying to pretend I'd done nothing more taxing all evening than flicking the clicker for the telly. I suggested a cup of tea would be nice, and then was rewarded with a 'Bloody hell!' that let me know he was suitably impressed with the speed of the transformation.

Of course the woodwork then needed doing...

Hello Sanderson's 'Fleur Trellis'.  We all agree that this is lovely and cheery!
Woodwork in Barley White from Dulux

Photo courtesy of DecorSupplies.co.uk

And the two walls that don't have wallpaper on them...

Walls in Wild Primrose by Dulux

Sanding the floor is 'on the list'.  I know we should have done this first, but hey...

So, unexpectedly, we end the week with a much cheerier kitchen.  And two more rooms that look in need of an update on account of being next door to the kitchen.  Where will it stop?