2 steps back

I think it is the nature of the beast, at least I hope it is, but it really does seem that every step forward you take 2 steps back.

Re-decorating the bathroom, uncovers problems with the plumbing, installing coving reveals an alarming damp patch on the wall. All, might I add, problems caused by the last set of builders.

For some reason the building work this time round has been particularly painful, maybe because I have been around more, maybe because the end is in sight - so close yet so far, maybe because they are doing the hall way and landing, literally no way of avoiding them. You can't shut the door, you can't disappear upstairs or into the kitchen, they are everywhere, so too the layers of dust and coffee puddles that accompany them.

There is progress, I mean we have walls - smooth white ones, ceilings, smooth white ones, cupboards, apparently not so smooth, as informed by builder who told me I needed to re-sand them after an entire weekend of painting undercoat. What? seriously, who has the time for this! But the progress feel slow, so so slow, when all patience has escaped you and you just want to wash the dust out of your hair once and for all.

This week brings with it a milestone, this week we say goodbye to 'the crack'. Once a blight on our landscape, a horrid disfigurement representing the overall dilapidation. We discovered the crack in the very first weeks, it brought horror and despair. But over time, we have grown to accept the crack, just a little idiosyncrasy that makes a house a home. Soon it will be gone, forever (we hope!), so here we commemorate its being.