Weekends recently seem to come and go without Rhi or I seeing them. We seem to fall asleep on Friday night and wake up on Saturday morning caught in a whirlwind that deposits us on Sunday evening panting and utterly weary with a bigger hole where something vital used to be, another wall paperless and even more dust and mess floating around the house. Our weekends consist of a jumble of people arriving, plasterers being organised, painting, wallpaper stripping and everything all crammed into the space of 48 hours. There barely seems time to sleep.
This weekend however has been a slight exception to this rule. The whirlwind still raged relentlessly all weekend; in fact, it seemed even busier due to the fact that, in addition to all of the usual mayhem, Mum and I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon on Sunday (the impending reality of which I had determinedly ignored over the past months). This weekend was also different to the past couple of months in another sense. It was the first weekend in which we have managed to break the cycle of destruction in our (soon to be) beatuiful home. We have, finally, broken open a tin of paint and begun to make the walls presentable. It is hard to describe the excitment and optimism that comes with the gentle 'pop' as the first tin of white paint is opened. Rhi and I have been waiting a long time to turn this corner and begin our ascent out of the destruction phase.
That is not to say that it all went smoothly, in fact it looked at one point as if this weekend would take us further into the deep pit of destruction we were already in. I am extremely grateful that Glynis and Dennis have such unending and optimistic work ethics and helped us to turn it around.
Saturday started, as far too many of our weekends have started recently, bright and early at 9am with the arrival of Glynis and Dennis. I am grateful in one sense that I am becoming used to early mornings as once bump arrives I expect Rhi and I will look back at this post and long for nice, late 9am starts. We set about washing down the walls in the nursery with sugar soap (Amazing stuff apparently. Still no idea what exactly it does). Walls clean and dry we then proceeded to open our first tin of white paint and began to cover the walls. It is amazing how much brighter and larger it makes the room feel. The room swelled along with our excitment and pleasure at finally getting underway with the beautification of of our house.
Then Dennis innocently enquired what our plans were for the landing and stairway. As Rhi headed downstairs to make some food, Dennis, Glynis and I looked at the mint coloured chip-board that currently clung to the walls and disappeared into the farthest reaches of the stairwell and I informed Dennis that we (Rhi and I) had decided previously that however much we hated it, we would settle for re-painting it a more acceptable colour and try to push the fact that it was chip-board from our minds. The main reason for this was that we couldn't quite face such a mammoth task that entailed somehow finding a way to get access to the hollow above the stairway, dealing with the trauma of manhandling the chip-board from another set of walls and then orchestrating the cleanup operation afterwards. It was, I reiterated, too much to bear especially when we felt we were turning the corner and moving away from our destructive past and embarking upon a more peaceful existence of 'making our house pretty'.
Dennis then threw a spanner in the works and pointed out in an offhand way that if we are going to paint up in the hollow then we are going to need to get up there anyway to 'cut in'. (This is a technical term which I pretended to know before I was asked to actually do it, at which time I thought it best to confess ignorance in case I caused permanent damage. It means to paint nicely around the edges near the ceiling and skirting boards for example). This led Glynis and I on a rapid journey of decision making and damage limitation forecasts and before I knew it I was teetering on the top of a rickety ladder, steadying myself on the wall above the stairwell, with the feet resting precariously on the eighth step of the stairs. I had just completed stripping the second of my preliminary 'tester' patches when Rhi appeared around the corner and took in the scene. Lip trembling and fear in her eyes, her plans for a new golden age devoid of wallpaper steamers crumbled before her.
After recovering from the initial shock and vowing to make sure that the stairway will be sorted out Rhi, Glynis and I set about stripping this most awkward of spaces in earnest while Dennis recoated the nursery. By lunchtime, the majority of the stripping was done.
During the afternoon Dad arrived with his lawnmower and cut the grass. It was 'annoying' him and he needed to do something about it. We let him get on with it and continued with the stairway and landing. We had just finished stripping and washing down the walls when Mum, Dais and Biz arrived ready to take Rhi out to choose her birthday present. It is Rhi's birthday in just over a month and her present from the Morgans is a puppy. Not thinking that we have enough on our prospective plates as it is we have decided to go the whole hog and get a puppy as well. In for a penny in for a pound. We went to choose him last weekend (which deserves a description in its own right... but not now). We have decided on 'Charley' as his name. Loosely based on Steinbeck's 'Travels with Charley' we thought it an apt name for our puppy, one who will accompany us on our journey. We are all setting out in life together - a real family. Charley is a labrador/Border Collie cross and, having some experience of Labradors and Border Collies separately, we believe that he will take the best traits of both breeds and be the perfect companion for our young family. Thats the plan anyway.
This weekend is the last weekend before Charley is old enough to come home and so we headed to Pets at Home to stock up on essentials. After a good half hour deliberating we emerged with a giddy Rhi clutching an adjustible red collar, a red lead, a green rope lead, a brush, two food dishes, a water dish, a squeezy rope toy, three rubber balls, a chewy leopard, a rubber chewing ring, a soft bed cushion, a basket to sleep in and a blanket. This dog is going to be very well catered for!
We headed home and decided to embark on our campaign to make bump's nursery the best bedroom for a child in the world. Two hours later we were staring happily at a honey coloured covering to the walls. It is sunny and happy and actually has a rather amazing story behind it. Winnie the Pooh arrived one morning to see his great friends William and Rhiannon and congratulate them on having moved into their first house. They showed him around and when they reached the room that was soon to be bump's nursery Pooh sat down thoughtfully. 'What an amazing view. This is my most very favourite place in the whole of this house' he said importantly. 'And as such, I have decided that I would like it to be painted the same colour as my most very favourite thing - honey'. This is the story of why Bump's nursery is painted yellow.
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