Lockdown diaries, day seventeen, we did it

The finished landing

Day seventeen, Sunday 15^th November 2020

 

Today could have been a dark and gloomy day. The wind and the rain did their best to clear the leaves from the Gingko tree and as the weather was coming from the south west, to prevent any leaks, we had to close most of the shutters, creating cave-like conditions indoors. It is the sort of day that would normally have registered pretty low on the happiness scale. Thankfully we had plenty to do to keep us distracted.

 

Attention to detail

I used to run a guest post feature on the blog called Lazy Sunday in France where Francophile friends and authors shared their perfect idea of a lazy day, on a French theme. For us, today was anything but a lazy Sunday in France. I was up with the lark to ensure the boulangerie wouldn’t have run out of croissants and pains au chocolat and once the first coffee had worked its way around our blood streams, it was all systems go on the decorating. The first bit was the fiddly bit, around the window, radiator and pipe work, then straight into a tight corner with two internal angles and an external one as well. Adrian might not like the repetitiveness of decorating, but he does love a problem to solve so he was very much in charge of figuring out the fiddly bits. Actually, he was pretty much in charge of it all. My role is to assist and ensure the required tool is always to hand, any off cuts are straight into the bin and any other mess is kept to a minimum. We certainly work well as a team, even after two periods of lockdown and are both really pleased with the new look room. Even the recycled curtains (from our first bedroom set twenty-three years ago) have been given a new lease of life against the new wallpaper.

 

All the junk that had been dumped on the landing for nearly two decades was cleared out and relocated before we began. The cot bed (not used since Ed was a toddler), the desk (that was stacked with my fabric stash), the broken grandfather clock (rescued about twenty years ago as its previous owners were going to drop it at the tip) and a bookcase full of untouched, dusty books). We now have a lovely fresh and bright space that as landings go is pretty big, but what else can we do with it apart from walk through it and use it to dry the washing in front of the radiator over winter? Any ideas would be gratefully received, unless it involves a dog bed for Mini as I don’t think she’d accept that as a good idea.

I know the weather in many parts of the UK and France hasn’t been great, but I hope you are all staying safe and were able to enjoy some relaxing time this weekend. We are off to enjoy an apero, well-deserved, even if we do say so ourselves.