Update!

Yes, its been a while due to the fact that I'm back to work and now only a weekend DIY warrior. But this has not prevented some progress . . .

Over the past weekends much has been accomplished, although I got a bit lazy with the photographs.


I fixed in all the baseboards and painted them. There was some debate about whether they ought to be varnished like the floor or white, but in the end Paula's argument that white would make the room appear bigger won over.


During the process I had to cut down some thick bolts that were too long and that's always fun.

Then I tackled the long-standing electrical problems. I don't like electrics but out of desperation took a stab at it. Neither rooms downstairs had any power in the lighting circuits. After some fiddling around with the multimeter I found a mysterious 'dead' wire that I realised must be some part of the circuit. When I connected it to the circuit in one of the light switches then suddenly both rooms came to life. (Of course I did switch the power off at the circuit breaker before messing around). This was good news! We went out and bought some new lamps to replace the hideous junk that was there. Soon we had lights in both Paula's new studio and the living room. So far no electrical fire either, so I think my job was a success!


After long debate we decided that the 'dining' room would become Paula's studio because she needed the space and nobody ever visits us for dinner anyway. We decided to put a small table in the bay window of the sitting room and use this for general living. So henceforth, I'm no longer allowed to use the term 'dining room' because this doesn't exist anymore. And because it no longer exists, I'm no longer allowed in there. However the gain for me is that the second bedroom upstairs will, according to the negotiated agreement, become my office/den. Let's see if this does come to pass or if over time some Spanish mind trick will persuade me to voluntarily give this up...

Then all that was left in the living room was to patch up the chimney brest which was still a little rough from the fireplace installation. Unfortunately the wall had been plastered over one to many times over the years and it was quite uneven. So I bought some pre-mixed skim and covered it all up. It needs time to dry so will paint maybe next weekend.


In the meantime, now that the rooms are completed, more or less, we went on a major Ikea binge and brought back several loads of flat pack goodies. Desperate to finally populate the room after two years, we wasted no time!



After much assembly we now have two reasonably nice rooms!