I’ve been meaning to paint the utility for ages. Being one of the rooms I plastered, Chris wasn’t happy with the smoothness of the finish, so post first-coat I filled in the worst of the bumps, with the plan to cover it up in the second coat. There was also the plasterboard around the new doorway that needed its first coat.

However, having opened the old pot of paint I realised there wasn’t enough to finish off the whole room. I just managed half the room before I had to give up and order a new tin.

The following weekend, with my new tin, I set to work on a second coat to the plasterboard and final coat for the rest. Before I started however, I had to attach and caulke a bit of skirting that has been previously missed. There were also a few rough spots of the wall in need of filler.

The wall next to the machines we decided to leave white, to stop the room feeling too narrow.

Chris’s big job was getting in the newel post at the top of the stairs. It’s not really needed, however we couldn’t cut off all the top of the stairs without making them unstable, and what needed to stay was a bit of a trip hazard, so the newel post would engulf the top of the stairs, and give a hand support for people heading down.

It was a tricky job as the base of the post had to be cut to engulf the stairs, and then a new piece of wood pasted in to make the outside of the post look neat. The whole thing was then attached to the wall.

The post was partly important to get in as we’re soon getting carpet installed on the landing, and it needed to be in place before that happened.

Chris’s other job was to install some bedside tables. As our bed had pulled out drawers, all the bedside tables we have stopped them from opening. Chris therefore cut off two legs and attached the table to the wall, allowing the draws to open.

Another nice job was putting up some pictures throughout the house. We have two of our dog Idris, one by my mum and the other by Chris’s cousin, in pride of place on the landing.

Chris had spent a long time finding a suitable second-hand woodburning stove for the lounge, needing to fit the hole that would be left by the old one. Luckily he found a fairly new one that had recently been taken out by the company that installed it, as the owners had had an extension and needed a bigger one installed. It’ll be a big dusty job, so definitely worth doing before the baby arrives.