Well, here we are;  to all intents and purposes the room is finished.  We await some spindles from Howard, and the bathroom is to be completed but no hurry there. Apart from the wonderful sofa and chairs we have a lovely table for working on (lap top, sewing machine etc) so at last the dining table won't be perpetually cluttered with papers and stuff;  also a very fine sideboard - to take all the papers and stuff!  We thought of having a seperate drinks cabinet up here but decided I would quaff it all and it would keep needing re-filling.  Perhaps a wee pulley system will get over the difficulty of carrying Mikes ridiculously full glasses of gin up the stairs.

The dog adores it and on good days we open the door and he parades up and down the balcony shouting at other dogs;  drives me mad.  But generally it is a truly delightful room - VERY relaxing which is unique in our house.  And provides us with bit of extra room so we can each have our own space at last.  Saves me from sitting out in the greenhouse.

Come and see it for yourselves.

Well, we've now got Rob's picture hanging in the perfect place so that's very exciting.  If you look hard you can see a wee yacht on the rhs sailing off to the west .  Carpet gets laid today, balcony wires are nearly up, so apart from the bathroom and a bit of furniture, the place is finished.  Last picture may be the blog end - and about time too!  And then for the party.

We really are getting to the end of the road now;  Mike has been lining the roof of the porch - a tricky upside down job causing a lot of cursing and swearing - then we need wee triangular windows above and a couple of lights, and that's about it.  Carpet was supposed to arrive last Saturday!  so one day perhaps.

Exciting news was that Rob arrived with the new picture on Tuesday - no you can't see it till it's hung but it really is perfect and fits the space beautifully.  A present from Ju which makes it very special.

Once we are ensconced here with a little more furniture, the only thing to be done -only? - is to fit the new bathroom.

Balcony wire has arrived but that will be a very exacting job;  now we have got the hang of the telescope we are enjoying peering at passing ships, but it never seems clear enough to brush up our astronomical skills, and now it's light at night we may have missed the window until later in the year.

 

Well, this lovely spell of weather is perfect for slating the roof and Mike (now recovered from flu, throat, cold and general feebleness) is out there every morning.  Ages ago we bought a wonderful supply of slates from a man in Clachan who was going to build a house and then decided not to.  Huge, flat, and all the same size means he is whizzing along and it all looks terribly posh.  What's more it's a fairly flat slope so requires no scaffolding , and no Patricia to heave the slates up.

On the new room, just a bit of roof panelling to complete and we're there (apart from the bathroom).  Chose a lovely carpet last week from Mr Lafferty, the travelling carpet fitter.  Yes, you've guessed - it's been discontinued.  So back to the books.

Rob has nearly finished my new picture -  he's having to make slight amendments to it as I'm being a bit pernickity - but we're dying to see it.

Well, at last the 'Pizza Oven' is in it's rightful place; looks superb against the DARK WALL which was a brilliant piece of interior decorating on my part. Rest of room is slowly being decorated but unfortunately Mikes cold/flu virus thing means that most week-ends he sits looking out to sea reading 'The Week'. Makes a change from me being incapacitated anyway. So one day we'll get finished. Main decisions at the moment are about wires round the balcony which are going to be very expensive. I keep worrying that the dogs will fall over the edge, but we all know that McUgly would just bounce back up.

Decorating! The downside of coming from a long line of wall paper makers is that Mike has to decorate to perfection. So , having done all the plastering last Spring we have at last got round to the final filling and rubbing down. An awful job, hence the dust sheets and the murky figure in the back ground. But soon time to chose the paint. My little effort is filling all the nail holes and then rubbing them down. I usually drift off half way through and forget to put the lid on the pot or clean the chisel.

Problem is that Mike was given carte blanche when he did up the bathroom (which is why it's all white) , so he insists I can have a free hand on this place; except every suggestion I make is greeted with cynical looks and grunts of disapproval. Thoughts of dramatic wallpaper were quickly de-bunked, but I am insisting on having one really dark wall as otherwise the place is going to look like the inside of a light box.

I am much more excited about the new picture I've commissioned from Rob Walker - we have already got the pizza one he did just waiting to be hung, and the next one is on the way.

Soon, soon.

And Howard comes down next week-end to survey the banisters which will be his contribution.

Well, who would have thought that banisters could be exciting! Since Christmas Mike has been working away with the intricacies of installing the banisters. Of course as the room is based on an old squint house, nothing is quite straight which makes fitting banisters VERY DIFFICULT But apart from the ones up the stair which we still hope Howard will turn for us, all are now in place with fancy tops to the posts and it's all looking excellent.
With a dry spell at last, the morning sun pours in the big doors and the room looks spectacular. Hopefully we can soon get decorating , but there always seems to be some last minute fiddley thing to be done. Perhaps Mike doesn't actually want to finish it! We'll see.