wagwaan?: Nearly finished...

Gosh, three posts in one day? Wonders will never cease. I am proud of my achievements today - I got nearly all the hall finished. All it's missing is some floor paint, a lamp shade and some little embellishments. This is what it looked like when I had finished the wall on the left hand side, and while I was cutting in round the right hand side (I can't work out how to resize pics in iPhoto so they'll all be huge; I hope it doesn't crash Typepad!!). I gave the door a good clean, and I can't believe how decent the paintwork still looks!

I was dealing with two different types of embossed paper, which was slightly tedious:

I kept painting, till it looked like this:

Then I moved the shoe cupboard to the wall opposite where it was before - so much better; being opposite the radiator reduced the width of our already narrow corridor. This way, it's less obtrusive, although the boyf thinks it blocks the bottom of the stairs (it doesn't....). I also had a brainwave and remembered that I had an old French lace panel that used to be up at the window in our tiny Parisian flat, just after Claire's dad and I split up. It's not actually "old", and it's not particularly to my taste, but it's the perfect width for the window so I taped it up and I'll cut it to the right length when I've bought the proper rod or wire.

View from the stairs. Shame about the jumble of meters that are up on the wall. You'll see why I have to get Claire to read the electricity meter - even standing on a chair I can't quite see the numbers! The gas meter is in the basement, which is another story...

I'm liking it more and more! View from a bit higher up. I decided to paint up the stairs too, or it would have looked silly.

Actually, I hadn't finished the right hand side at this point. Luckily for me, because I was not about to paint all the way up to the ceiling or the landing, the people who papered the wall did a kind of dado effect up the right hand side. See here. And note the absolutely fabulous cutting in I did freehand. I'm impressed with it, if I must say so myself.

(on top is the old colour; below is the fresh white paint).

Phew! Half way through, I got a planned call from Claire. Her last day at camp and a chance to wish her Happy Birthday and chat about what her plans are for the next few days. How grown up she sounds. "We're all going out for dinner in New York later" she says. Turns out, it's not just her and Karin, but also a few other people stopping off in New York. Oh, and I forgot: her new Dutch friend (Karin) shares a birthday with her, so they were both excited at turning 19. Last night they had a leaving ceremony which entailed everyone walking down to the lake, floating candles on the water and crying a lot, if I remember correctly. As they were still up at 00.00 hours, people sang Happy Birthday, and For She's a Jolly Good Fellow and another one I forget.... Sounds fun! (Claire will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, hehe).

After painting, I collapsed into a hot bath, then I had dinner in front of Miami Ink, and now I'm off to the land of nod. Sweet dreams everyone.....