For me the most exciting thing this week has been getting the first bit of colour on the wall. Even though the rooms aren’t finished a little bit of paint seems to bring them to life. For Chris, the most exciting thing has been getting our shed up. The shed is a short-term storage solution, as we went from having a garage for storing all our tools and bikes, to not having one and storing them in the garden. Long-term we want to repurpose the old toilet block into a shed, but that’s a whole other project, so this will have to do for now.

I’m really pleased with the green we chose for the bedroom. It wasn’t the original green we’d decided on, but one of the cheap end of line colours we were able to get half price.

Similarly the yellow for the bathroom wasn’t the original yellow I wanted. This one is called buttercup yellow and needed two white coats before I could start on the yellow paint. It’s brighter than I originally planned, but I think it will mellow once the room has more in it to break up the intensity of the colour.

On Saturday, while I was out with my volunteers, Chris had a frustrating time installing a toilet and sink. The toilet is now in and functioning, while the sink still needs a little more work.

On Sunday I set to work putting up insulation and plasterboard on the dining room ceiling. It’s always exhausting working above your head, and ideally I needed about six pairs of hands, but still most of the room got finished. The last few bits need the stack of boxes gone to be reached, and then we’ll start on the kitchen side.

Meanwhile Chris busied himself plastering the lounge wall. Originally we’d planned to finish the upstairs first, but Chris pointed out that a large amount of the stuff taking up room is destined for the lounge, so with that room complete we can make more space to work elsewhere.

It’ll certainly be nice to clear this room out and set it up properly, as throughout the renovation it’s always been a bit of a dumping ground. Not long and I’ll be able to head back to the paint shop.