The end of the financial year has been so manic that there was no way I could take time off to deal with the various issues of maintaining an old cottage. But today was the last day of the fiscal year, all my milestones were submitted on time last Friday, and I could take a deep breath and get on with things at home that have been stacking up.
Rob my trusty decorator came around this morning, and is spending several days this week doing some small but much-needed redecorating jobs. The wall paper is peeling off the walls in my bedroom, particularly around the window. I neither want, nor can afford, to have the whole room re-papered, but I do have half a roll of the original paper left that I found at the back of a cupboard, which is enough for running repairs. In the spare room, I’ve got a nasty stain on the ceiling from the most recent leaking-roof incident. I had a roofer around a month or so ago to repair the leak, so Rob is now repainting the ceiling. It’s annoying that the whole ceiling needs redoing for a stain that is 10cm across at most, but I don’t have any of the original paint left, so the only sensible option is to paint the whole lot. Since he has to be here to wait for the paint to dry between coats, I’ve also got Rob repainting the ceiling in the shower room. That’s been peeling pretty badly, and I want a more moisture-resistant finish.
The drawback to having a decorator in is that he spent his lunch break walking around the outside of the house, noting all the external woodwork which is peeling / flaking / decidedly dodgy. When I got home this afternoon I was taken on a guided tour of all the dubious bits, and have agreed that they do indeed need doing over the summer, when the weather is more clement. So he’ll be back in a few months’ time…..
I’ve had a surfeit of tradesmen around today, as I also had to call in Martin, the brother-in-law of Tim, my pest-controller. The pair of them are on an annual rolling contract to deal with the mice in my loft, and last week I started hearing noises again. The ultrasonic repellers seem to have deterred the mice for a while, but clearly aren’t a panacea. I’m sure the creatures are scrabbling up the cavity wall directly behind the head of by bed – at 23:00 on the dot. Except that they clearly aren’t affected by the change to Summertime, so it was midnight last night, just as I was trying to get to sleep. Grrr! I’m hoping that the poison will do its job and that the noises should stop in a week or so. Martin gave me a cheery “Goodbye – see you in a couple on months!” as he left, and I expect he’s right……
