Over ambitious?

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! So much to do! Clever Bird is just beginning to realise what a huge undertaking moving house (without professional help) and setting up a holiday cottage, actually is. The moving is a biggy in itself. But setting up a holiday cottage - Holy mackerel! Ignoring the two hundred things that need to be sorted out legally and marketing-wise and the two thousand things that need sorting out and buying, to go in the house, the whole house needs redecorating. It might not be big, but it is totally timber-framed, with wall and ceiling beams exposed throughout!

As they do not have tons of spare cash, Baggy and Calum are planning on doing the decorating themselves. Much to Hormonal Hannah's horror, Calum wanted to get started early today. Well, not that early really, but 8.00am is early for Hannah on a Saturday! He was of course right. By the time he and Furry Mama had managed to get her medicines into a very unhappy Hinge cat and they were ready to leave, it was already 9.30am.

By the time they left the DIY superstore having spent an age deciding on paints it was 11.30am! Question: why is the specialist paint needed for a timber-framed wattle-and-daub house £49.50 a can? No bloggees, not a huge can either, a normal-sized can! Just because it's "breathable". Seriously, can it really be that more difficult to make? And why oh why do they make the labels on the shelves so miniscule that Baggy had to traipse back out to the car to get her reading glasses, so she had a clue what she was looking at? She got a heck of a shock when she looked up at Calum and could actually see his face properly! Clever Bird had no idea how bad Baggy's cataract had got. And that purple muppet beard, wow, no wonder people gawp at him. Love it. But Creative Clara digresses.

Food shopping finished, it was now time for a quick cappuccino before heading home. Already 12.30. Food, paint etc unpacked and put away/dumped on any available surface, it was time to tackle the rubbish in the garden. Bags and bags of rotting grass cuttings; a rusty barbeque; an old office chair; ironing board; CD rack; old garden furniture; a (very new, but totally rubbish) Hoover; a broken electric oil-heater; more bags of shed rubbish etc etc. When Baggy suggested Calum got the old lawnmower out of the shed, she got growled at. "Well it's me that's sentimentally attached to it as Dad helped me choose it", said Hannah in a huff, "not you, so we need to get rid!"  "And how much stuff do you actually think I can get in the back of Dodgy?" asked Calum. "Oh". By the time it had all been unloaded and recycled and they were home again, it was 3.00! Sandwiches made and eaten, they started to mask off the beams ready to paint.

Clever Bird watched Calum getting on with it, feather duster in one hand. "Hmmmm", thought The Domestic Goddess, maybe she should help. Dusting ceiling beams as old plaster landed in Baggy's eyes was not pleasant. Clever Bird had a rethink and proceeded to vacuum the ceiling instead. 6.00pm. The Goddess realised that she had better start cooking the Chilli Con Carne for supper. Clara decided she'd better blog. Calum carried on "masking" - only another thirteen lots of ceiling beams and two walls to mask then! 7.30pm...........