I had a bit of a shock last week when a memory popped up on Facebook informing me that a year ago we’d been busy laying the slates on the roof. It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since the roof was being finished and the inside was nearly untouched. Who know where we’ll be in another year’s time!

The weather is starting to turn autumnal, and our many houseplants are getting to the point where being inside in the dust is probably better for them than being outside in the cold. For now they will live bunched together in the least dusty rooms, but hopefully one day they can claim their rightful places.

Sometimes big jobs make little to no impact. Painting the big staircase wall took three coats and a lot of clambering around, and yet in photos it’s hard to see the impact, particularly when the colour almost matches the bare plasterboard in the doorway.

And then again sometimes little jobs make a huge difference. We ordered a blind for the bathroom window, aware our neighbours can see in (if they really wanted to) at night. Though it’s only a small thing, somehow the room looks much more complete now it’s in place. Because of the sloping ceiling Chris had to spend a good while cutting an angled piece of wood to attach to the ceiling to make a flat surface.

With that done the lintle needed covering with insulated board, which then had to be filled and finally the whole thing will need a coat of paint. Jobs always lead to more jobs.

One job we didn’t have to do was replace our garden fence, with our neighbour kindly paying her gardener to take out the old one and put in something new. It takes me itch to get on with the garden, but with winter coming there’s still a lot inside the house that needs prioritising.

This weekend I did my first bit of plastering on dry wall. So far I’ve just been doing the stone wall plastering, which in an old house can be much rougher without being judged. Chris was very insistent on the need for perfect smoothness on the drywall, so sofar I’ve left it to him, as I lack the skill to do a perfect job. However, having done a lot of drywall plastering now, Chris has a growing hatred for it and decided perfection wasn’t as important afterall. I started off on the odd pieces here and there, that still needed doing, in order to get used to the technique, before tackling the utility room. I agree with Chris that it’s not a fun job, but it’s at least very satisfying to see the transformation.

While I was plastering Chris was busy shopping, spending a whopping £500 on wood for skirting and architrave, among other bits and pieces. We’ve been very lucky to be able to reuse so much wood throughout the project, because whenever we go to buy any the price is horrifying.

With new wood purchased Chris was finally able to hang the other door on the wardrobe, which will hopefully help keep more dust out of the bedroom.

And finally Chris continued with the laying of the utility floor. The floor can’t be fully completed till the backdoor is replaced, something we need to do sooner rather than later, as you can currently feel the wind rushing through the gaps in it.

We met a distant neighbour while out on a walk yesterday. He’d seen me dumping rumble in the garden when we were busy digging out the kitchen floor and asked if he could take a look inside. Meeting us out and about he asked how things were going. On hearing how far we’d gotten since he’d last seen us he said ‘oh I do love a happy ending!’ Perhaps not quite the end yet, but it certainly feels a lot closer.