Three areas of the house now look fresher and brighter all because of a hard day’s work from the electrician to install some spotlights. It took him over half a day to do the lounge because he wasn’t able to cut the holes for the lights from above (due to the chipboard flooring in our bedroom).

He did a fantastic job though and we have now got rid of our two very outdated ceiling lights that we’ve hated for years but done nothing about. One of them hasn’t even worked for almost two years. The room will be plastered on Tuesday.

Next on the list was the upstairs landing. These spotlights were replacing the outdated six bulb chandelier that’s always been a dust trap, and because I could never reach it to change the bulbs, there was only one left lit.

He also installed a new mains powered smoke alarm. The old one fell off a while ago so I’ve just had battery ones dotted about the house.

The last room he did for us today was our bedroom. The landing and bedroom took him much less time than the lounge because he was able to clearly see where to make the holes because he could access from the loft above.

My unpleasant but productive hour in the loft

Once the plasterboard was unscrewed from the temporary loft opening this morning, I was able to get up there to clear the area above the upstairs landing. After a busy morning working, I put on my old clothes, rubber gloves and facemask and prepared myself for the mess.

Although the area up there was difficult to get to, very dirty and ‘dead-mice-smelly’, it was easy to throw things away because they weren’t mine and I wasn’t attached to them in any way. The previous owner had left some boxes and bags of stuff there when they moved out and we’ve never got round to seeing what was there. Over the years the boxes and bags have got moved about and started to rip and break. It was very satisfying bagging them up.

I found games, toys, paperwork, basketball nets, newborn cards, framed pictures, a blanket, a mattress and other bits and pieces. There were also about 20-30 empty plastic water bottles and one empty plastic milk carton all over the place. I’m thinking that maybe a bag of recycling had been thrown up there one day by mistake instead of recycling it all. Who knows? There was also a stuffed owl with its feet chewed off (possibly by mice?) and a really cute stuffed dog – never seen either of them before.

All of it went into a couple of large rubbish bags and I also bagged up the plastic bottles for recycling. I threw one bag down from the top of the ladder and it accidently got caught on a nail causing the bag to tip upside down emptying its contents including the cute dog all over the landing (bottom left picture below). Bagging it up once was enough, I then had to do it all again.

It was very difficult moving about in the loft today due to there being only joists in that area and no fixed floorboards. I was holding on and balancing the whole time and had to be careful where I put my feet. It was an interesting hour though and quite an eye opener as to what is actually up there. There’s not really that much to get rid of and I think that if I spent a few more hours up there next year before we get the loft boarded properly, I could tidy up what I want to keep and throw the rest in a skip.

The electrician needs to pop back in the morning to remove our chandelier – it was too big a job to fit in at the end of the day as it’s heavy and awkward. Our decorator starts tomorrow as well, so she’ll make a start on the ceiling in my youngest’s room. There’s no way I’m ever doing ceilings again after doing my other daughter’s room. It’s such an awkward job and gave me a neck-ache.

We have had a massive programme of work this year and so many jobs are getting ticked off. I am starting to feel like we are getting somewhere.

Wishing you all a happy weekend whatever you do.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra