Week 3 Lockdown 2

I can't believe that we've got to the end of Week 3 of this lockdown already.  It's been a bit of a mixed week. Time has gone so quickly, and I still don't feel like I've achieved all that much. This week, I began to feel the pressure to get stuff done before I go back to work. I wanted to at least to break the back of decorating the hall and then be able to clean up the house and get the Christmas decorations up before returning to work, so it was time to really knuckle down. 

However, things didn't really go as planned. I continued to try to paint the inside of the vestibule cupboard, with little success. After trying a coat of the lighter coloured emulsion paint that I'd bought, I wasn't happy with that finish either and after more trial and error, I've decided to use a completely different paint. 

I ordered some tester pots from Little Greene for one wall in the downstairs part of the hall. Both of the colours I got samples for were quite dark, but whichever paint we choose, is going to replace a dark colour already on the wall in this part of the house, so I know the space can take it. I decided that whichever we choose, I would buy a bigger pot of it and re-paint the inside of the cupboard with it, so that there's some continuity.

The problem with the cupboard is, that it is very rough and uneven inside on both the walls and woodwork and I don't want to spend time filling, sanding, etc. as it doesn't really get seen that much. The very dark matt paint that I'm intending to use, seems to help disguise the flaws, whereas the light coloured paint and the eggshell paint with it's slight sheen, seem to make them more obvious. I now have to wait until we have made a decision and then I will need to order and take delivery of the wall colour before I can finish the cupboard. Sometimes the simplest jobs take much longer than you anticipate. Hence, the hall may not actually get finished before I go back to work.

Anyway, here's a before shot of the cupboard before I started, just to give you some idea of what I'm dealing with. I know it's just a cupboard, but I'd like to do it to a standard that I'm happy with.

 

On Saturday, OH was able to join me and do a bit more decorating and he finished sanding all the walls and also sanded all the woodwork on the banister and skirtings. I will now be able to start painting them, just as soon as he has finished painting the walls and ceilings. This will not be until next week though, as progress is slow.

On Monday, I managed to be a bit more productive and finally went over to the glass shop to order some glass for a photo portrait of my grandfather. I'd mounted it during the last lockdown and measured it for glass, but just hadn't got around to getting any. Anyway, the glass cost £9 and after putting everything in the frame, it's now up on the sewing room wall, which is very satisfying. It brings back childhood memories of my mother's bedroom, as it always hung on the wall there. One more thing crossed off the list.

On Monday this week, I also got back to working on a quilt. It was one that I started during the last lockdown. I decided to hand stitch the quilted rows, as my sewing machine is not working again. It took 2 hours to stitch just one row, which was a bit laborious, but only 5 more to go before it's finished. I'm going to try to do one per day, so that I can finish it before I go back to work.

Talking of which, on Monday it was announced that non-essential shops will be opening after this lockdown ends, regardless of tiers, so I will definitely be going back to work next week. I then received an email from work asking us to return to work next Tuesday 1st December to prepare the shop for opening on Wednesday 2nd December.  This means I only have a few days left of this lockdown and this applies a little more pressure to get everything done, but maybe I need it.

Unfortunately, LB got some bad news on Monday, namely that she's going to be made redundant from her part time job working as a waitress in a pub. She was disappointed, but she's had a good run and been paid all through the last lockdown, so she's been very lucky. It might be difficult for her to find another job at the moment though, but hopefully by Easter things might be more back to normal and she might find something.

In view of the current Covid figures up north where our families live, OH cancelled our cottage booking for Christmas, as it's one of the worst affected places in the country at the moment. If we do go it just adds another household to the mix, so it's probably best we don't. We'd been thinking about cancelling anyway, and had until next week to take advantage of free cancellation. I'm not sure we'd even have been able to travel up, due to restrictions as they will be in Tier 3,  so our movements will also be very restricted. I will probably need to work right up to Christmas and straight after anyway, especially since we've just lost a month's worth of revenue.

On Tuesday, I decided to spend a last day in the garden. I had a couple of small jobs still to do, both at the front and back and a bit more leaf sweeping. I wanted to get it all done in time for the brown bin collection due on Wednesday morning. In addition, once it was done, I could focus on cleaning the house, as I would no longer be tramping dirt in and out.

In order to make sure that I have enough time to get the whole house cleaned before going back to work, I started on the cleaning on Wednesday. With the main dust inducing decorating work done in the hall, it should stay relatively clean, so on Wednesday morning I started by cleaning the living room. I haven't given it a thorough clean since the last lockdown, so it was long overdue. It didn't take too long, but looked so much better. Now I can at least get the Christmas tree up at the weekend, if nothing else.

Looking ahead to Week 4 of lockdown, it is now going to be focused on cleaning, painting, sewing and putting up the Xmas decorations. I need to really focus hard to get everything I want to do done. I will let you know how I get on.