Some time ago, before Our Bereavement, we were offered a second hand carpet from one of Steve’s cousins. They have a long/wide living room in which a coal spontaneously leapt off the grate & made a mark in the middle of the room, right where everyone looks the minute they walk through the door. Joel’s carpet was looking a bit ropey, so we grabbed it eagerly.

It took us a while to get to fitting it, because shortly after that was the point where mum died. That’s not to say that ordinarily it would have been done next day: we have another gifted carpet which has sat in the back room for at least 2 years. We’re not reet snappy about these things, usually.

So it was quite an achievement, the point where we were standing in joel’s room with carpet stretchers, no furniture and Dad due any minute to help us lay the new carpet.

Steve looks round, pensively, and says (bear in mind this is a Sunday, and we’re self employed) “this room could really do with decorating before we lay new carpet, couldn’t it?”

See, now. Several times we’ve been on the brink of doing something, or thinking about it, and one of us will say – we *could* do that, but first we should do this – i.e. create all kinds of dependencies, the upshot of which is we often don’t do it at all. In some ways, it’s to Steve’s credit that he only floated the decorating idea once the room was empty of furniture. Any earlier and we might have put the project off until it was even slightly convenient, and thus not done it.

The upshot is, after a bit of face-pulling and non-saying of negative things on my part, Dad arrived, and was promptly sent home again for wallpaper steamer and scrapers.

Those familiar with our house, and our decorating history will almost certainly now be reading from between their fingers, or from behind the sofa. Our house was built in or before the 1880s. There are very few right angles or straight lines, all the floors creak, and walls are not flat. In the 1970s or thereabouts one of the house’s owners decided that an effective way to deal with the uneven walls was stippled artex. About a week after we moved in, having found stippled artex in many-many rooms we hadn’t previously been aware were stippled, I was sat in bed and realised that even here, not only were the walls artexed, they were artexed on top of wallpaper.

Joel’s room is one such room. We set to with the steamer, which rubberised the artex, meaning it could be peeled off like a face mask, and then going over it again to remove the lining paper. Half way along one wall, we discover that the paper underneath runs out. Steve takes a trip out to get artex-removal goo. Dad, who has been side-stepped to the job of boxing in the water pipes in the corner, has well scarpered by now, BTW. In the meantime, I strip (oo-er Mrs) wallpaper, and sand & undercoat the woodwork.

Steve’s intention was to do the gloss of an evening during the week, and make progress that way. The fates conspired to make this one of the busiest weeks ever, and Steve didn’t make it home before 9pm ALL WEEK. So my week was 2 children sharing a room, not settling, trying to get them to settle single handedly… and failing.

The following weekend was goo application & removal, and carpet removal. And painting the ceiling.

The following week was also busy. It’s fair to say that, given the week before, I had no expectation of any decorating occurring weekday evenings. I wasn’t prepared to do it, being properly knackered, so didn’t expect Steve to be able to do any either. Joel asked “Why do I have to sleep in Lily’s room for ever?”

So: to easter weekend. Steve glossed while I acquired wallpaper and took L&J to see “How To Train Your Dragon”. Wallpaper was applied in pretty-fast time, and painted. New light fittings and curtain rail put back up and hey presto, the young man can finally move back in.

Now we have had to promise to tart Lily’s room up somewhat, although she’s temporarily mollified by moving the furniture round, and frankly the rest of the house is looking a bit shabby…

We’ve noted that this is the second room that Joel has had a hand in choosing the colour. Both rooms are yellow. We may ask his opinion in future, but we may also ignore it…

Footnote: I’ve had to remove the Ben10 blanket from his chair, bnecause her’s worried that it will turn into an alien in the night. I forget how young he is, sometimes, it seems…