Weekend of R&R?

If R&R stands for "rest and relaxation"...then NO. We worked our fingers to the bone this weekend and have surprisingly little to show for it. Pictures will be forthcoming, but we're racing against the clock to get bedrooms for 2 little girls all painted so that carpet can be installed on Friday, so that beds can be built and guests can come on Saturday. We'll have a houseful of people in less than a week's time when Paulster's sister and her 3children come to visit.

We're really looking forward to having everyone together for a week this summer.

Paulster sanded the walls in Blondie's room where wallpaper clung desperately to the walls for the last 10-15 years. And I primed and painted Drama's room. Paulster's up there now putting an undercoat on the wood skirting boards, window sills, and doorframes. Positively toxic. We're running a nearly military operation to get everything done in time for the carpet to be installed on Friday--and so that if they bash into things a bit, that it doesn't destroy the paint job...curing time.

Tomorrow night is hanging wall paper in Blondie's room. It's really "lining paper", which means that the wall plaster isn't in good enough shape to just paint...so you hang this stuff up and paint it. Oh, and I put the final 2 coats of paint on the bathroom. So apart from the cupboards [cabinets] that will be built in there and the skirting board and mirror...we're all done in there!

This has all been quite an adventure in DIY in England. I'm not sure I'd ever seen a radiator, much less removed one from a wall before I got here...but tonight, the amateurs managed to get the radiator off of Blondie's wall so that the paper can be put on and it painted. Here's hoping it goes back on so smoothly and doesn't leak!

The "Miracle of the Internet"-- from bomb-making to removing a radiator...you really can find anything you want out there!

We're already planning for the weekend AFTER next to be our true R&R weekend.