Nearly done!

After a couple of days' work on the windows, come yesterday afternoon, we were able to drag our mattress back into the bedroom and make up the bed, titivate and consider the joys of sleeping in our room again.  

Here are a few glimpses.

The black and yellow ewer and basin look more in keeping with the bed than my beloved Minton one, which I am now keeping safe in my sewing room.

My seasons cross-stitcheries have gone up...

A plump new duvet...

 There used to be a not-so-stylish (actually, not AT ALL stylish) tallboy in the alcove at the side of the bed, which had just been turned into a giant set of man-drawers by my other half.  With it now ejected from the bedroom, the alcove looked a little bare, so I arranged a few of Mr U-t-B's knick-knacks on the floor.  I thought this would be met with derision, but (step back in amazement) he likes it, and it means that no clutter-collecting piece of furniture or shelf is likely to go in there!

So all is calm and restful in the newly decorated room, but we now have to reclaim the rest of the house from the dust, debris and discarded tools that have landed in every nook and cranny!  

'Let's do the job properly'

The words (from Mr U-t-B) that filled me with horror this morning, when I was all ready for a sprint finish in the bedroom revamp race.

We'd achieved the sanded and varnished floorboards, going from this...

...through this (and a day and a half spent looking like extras from an episode of Dr Who in strange face masks)...

...to this...

And pasted,  papered  and painted walls to (near) perfection (even if the Sanderson's paper did run out  one-and-a-half inches short of the finish!)...

We'd even put the bed back together, and were thinking about dragging the mattress off the floor in my sewing room back into position, when the dreaded words were uttered.

'Let's do the job properly.  I think I'll sort the sashes out!'

So the sash that doesn't close properly because the weight is hanging in the wrong place, needing a wooden prop to keep it closed in the depths of winter, is to be tackled, along with the one that refuses to budge at all, and whilst we're at it, the outsides of the windows will be scrapped and made good.  This thoroughness is all very well but I was so looking to finish by lunchtime today!

I know I'll be glad in the end, but when you're ready for a sprint, hearing you have to do a marathon isn't very welcome!

Stripped and plastered

No, not a description of me the night before last

(my birthday - when actually I was tucked up under two blankets with nothing stronger than a weak cup of tea as we went out for a pub lunch and my tummy objected to something I ate...) 

but of the current state of our bedroom.

Stripped of the yucky grey carpet (this bit looks okay because it was under the bed.  The rest of it was flattened through 20+ years of being trodden on and had picked up lots of tea, coffee and food stains last year when Mr U-t-B was flat on his back in there for weeks on end with his slipped discs and I kept tripping over him or the mattress on the floor when adminstering to his nutritional needs!)...

Gone to make way for the floorboards, which, once sanded, we hope will be attractive, and cut down on Mr U-t-B's allergies (gosh - he sounds a right old crock, doesn't he?)

Stripped of the narrow pair of wardrobes that were built in the alcoves either side of the chimney breast, which allowed each of us two short rails running the opposite way to normal hanging rails for our clothes, and may well be to blame for the fact that neither of us would win any prizes in the sartorial elegance competition...

Gone to make way for a new, deeper pair of wardrobes, complete with Ikea metal frames and drawers and 'secret' extra storage behind the false wall we created rather than having the wardrobes stand proud of the chimney breast.

(Don't worry - the doors which we are too tight-fisted to change  thriftily re-using, will be painted!)

Stripped of the woodchip wallpaper on the ceiling (put up maybe thirty years ago to prevent the ceiling from coming down!)

Gone to make way for a new, plastered ceiling, ready now for coving...

And stripped of all vestiges of wallpaper, to make way for the Sanderson's one I finally chose and ordered last week...

All those deliberations on grey, eau-de-nil, green, red, and I went neutral in the end!

Big cheers for my clever, not-much-of-a-crock-at-all husband, for all his hard work so far!

Vintage vehicles and vide-greniers

The day after we arrived on holiday, Miss U-t-B and I nipped into town for some groceries and happened upon a mini, vintage car rally. That's mini as in not a vast number of cars, as opposed to a rally full of small cars.  

Not just any vintage cars, but mostly my favourite, Citroen Traction Avants.

There were also some sweet 2CVs.  I wouldn't say no to one of these to buzz around in!

Actually the mini bit was true in the other way too as there was also a bunch of children's cars, somewhat spoilt for us by the scary doll passengers! Rather creepy, this pair were...

This little outing was a perfect vintage warm-up for the next day which saw us up bright and early for the first of what turned out to be four vide-greniers we managed to squeeze into the holiday.  

At the first, in Chamberet, there was plenty to look at,  but with Mr U-t-B's pleading 'nothing big', I kept myself in check!

He was tempted by these...

...but only bought a door knocker and a big cast iron pan, whilst I only bought a tin of talc!

It still has the talc in it, but I think I'll pass on that!

The very next day saw us head off to Bugeat, past this stunning viewpoint...

The Bugeat vide-grenier was fab, and I came away with a pair of vintage skis, some red gingham napkins and a gorgeous wire bottle or glass carrier - all of which I failed to photograph! When I can dig them out I will try to remember to do so.

By the following Tuesday, in Treignac, I thought I might be all vide-greniered out.  But there was plenty to look at - though it does have to be said that there are increasing amounts of plastic toy tat and discarded clothing to look past these days at most v-gs.  

It was a super-hot day, so I was glad we were there early, even if that did mean that things were just being set up.  In Treignac, the vide-grenier winds up and down the narrow medieval streets from the old market place up to  top of the town and the square outside our friend's lovely hotel.

Chambres d'hotes 'Art de Vivre'

More hours than I'd care to mention were whiled away amongst these stalls.  In the end I came away with two boxes of children's puzzle blocks, a couple of tins, an embroidered sheet and contrasting pillowcases, a pretty pillbox and four small bowls.

The haul - quite restrained, I think!

The first set of puzzle blocks are very much homemade, and I just love the muddle of fragmentary images...

The second box turned out to be a tad disappointing.

It has helpful sheets showing each of the pictures, and the correct number of blocks...

But once you try to make up the picture, seven of the blocks are duplicates, leaving seven holes in the finished picture.  Oooooh!

Never mind, with the wonders of a scanner and printer, plus a bit of cutting and pasting, I hope I can sort it out.

The last of the four treasure hunts was in Seilhac.  I had not been to this one before and it was HUGE.  But I was definitely not in the right mood that day for such a large hunting ground (it was a very close, sticky day, and my sunglasses had given me a headache!) so I came away all but empty handed, having bought only a bashed-about-but-still-sweet little tin...

...just because it would a shame to leave without having bought a thing!

Back

No more hot, lazy days beside our friends' lake.

No more light-pollution free nights, waiting with bated breath for stars to go shooting by.

No more scurrying round vide-greniers for the best and prettiest bargains.

No more nights so peaceful that the only noise you hear are the owls hooting and the occasional braying of the love-lorn donkey next door.

No more hiding the eggs from the marauding marten, and fruit from the loir (edible dormouse).

Mugshots courtesy of Google images - our culprits are still at large!

The scene of the crime - there should be 4 eggs here...

No more bats scaring the living daylights out of Miss U-t-B.

(NB: A bat did not write this message.  Miss U-t-B did after a rather fraught first night, during which I had consoled her with the 'peace' of the countryside.)

No more rounds of the 'Build a Bed' competition, in which you get presented with an assortment of bed parts and can sleep in any bed you manage to create from the bits.

We had a truly fabulous holiday, even if it was on a building site!  In fact we enjoyed it so much, we arrived back and have turned this house into a building site too...

I have been away from blogging (and computers in general) so long I have almost forgotten what to do.  Looking forward to catching up with some blog reading very soon!