turning a corner

 It was a good day today. I thought it was going to be (that often - but not always - helps). Roger the carpet man (his name not an instruction - but hey whatever floats your boat) came at 8 to fit the carpets in the 2nd bedroom, the stair runner, the cellar stairs and the cellar. And lo did the heavens open and glorious light shone around and there was a parking space right outside the house which never happens. And the carpets look great and my stair runner is the bees knees so phew.

We stopped in one of the charity shops in town that often has furniture and saw, in the back, a really good sideboard/dresser type thing which we really need as we have a lot more kitchen than kitchen. We snapped it up and that solves another big problem.

Our friend Kerry did the first moving load for us in her camper van and now there is stuff - our stuff in the house - our house! 

And I did the first coat of wax oil on the ground floors which took forever but was veeeeeeery satisfying indeed.

Today, for the first time, I actually felt the excitement that everyone jeeps asking me about. "OOOh isn't it exciting?" they ask, or "aren't you excited?" and I think - well no. Scared, most definitely. Bored (pulling nails, anyone?) often. Exhausted? Always. But today - I was excited. 

Good thing too because I have a huge blister on the palm of my hand, what I think might be bursitis in both my index finger knuckles, and although I can be down, or up - the in-between bit is getting very difficult indeed. 

Also exactly 1 week left.

gulp.

Buy a house, they said. It will be fun, they said

 Well. It turns out getting the nails out of floorboards is the easy part.

Sanding them is no fun at all no no no not even a little bit. And it has not gone smoothly (see what I did there?!)

We've had to get a young whippersnapper in to help us as it is just too much. And then to top it all off the bloody sanders keep breaking! Nothing more can really be done until the sanding is done as it looks like the Sahara in there. 

ARGHHHH

"It's just a floor" I keep telling myself.

It's just a floor.

(2 floors are done and they look lovely. The dining room, however, is not going down without a fight)

And I've had to spend £100 on floor wax oil. £100!!!!!!!!!!! What's in it, the wisdom of the ages? Gold flakes? 2.5 litres of holy water? 

Not like I'll ever find out at this rate. 

Sisyphean

 If you buy a Victorian workers cottage in the UK, and if you are reasonably lucky, chances are that buried underneath the "progress" of linoleum and laminate and hardboard and carpet you will have fairly decent floorboards. Usually pine, but maybe oak if it was a posher house. 

We have been lucky. 3 of the 4 rooms in our new house have pine floorboards, in - salvageable - reasonable - condition. 

Whoo hoo we thought. Quids in. Hurrah. 

But wait.

The boards must be sanded. And to sand them, every nail must be either removed or pounded down so it won't catch. Looks easy from standing height, but you get down on your knees with your eyes on the floor (where - spoiler alert - you will be for what seems like the rest of your life) - and you will see that these boards are infested - positively lousy - with nails. Some small, some large. Some bent over and hammered in, some so rusted when you try to pry them out the head just pops off and you have to pound them in instead. 

You will go over the boards and pick out every crappy bit of metal. Then you will look again and see six more, laughing at you. You will do those. Then you will decide to be systematic and go through board by board and you will find so many more you wonder if perhaps you must have some sort of sight deficiency that is hampering your efforts. That's got to be it, you think, trying to stand up - stumbling on your numb and aching legs, and hearing the distinctive rip of denim on yet another bloody nail. 

I have visions of previous inhabitants. "Oh I say, Elspeth, it is a quiet evening. Why don't we pound a few more upholstery tacks into the floorboards?" "Oh John, you are terrible you are! Oh you hound - well go on then - pass me the hammer!"

oh hi!

Just popping in quickly to say it's going well but it's very very busy! If we're not sanding it or painting it, we're ripping nails out of it or scraping paint off of it. Kitchen worktops arrive Tuesday, and the floor sander on Friday (we're going to attempt to sand the boards in three rooms - wish us luck). Juggling all this with work is as fun as it sounds, but it's all good so far :)

Here's some pics:

 Bedroom floorboards uncovered

Partner in grime

some of the rubbish

It's a busy street! This cat runs the roost and i came in one day to see him sitting in our kitchen looking at me as if it were me in the wrong place!

And back at the oast the packing has begun...