We're getting there

 It's a beautifully bright and sunny day here so I thought I would get the camera out and take a few shots of where we are at this given moment. The decorating has been completed (it only took us all of last week - so glad it's finished as I was exhausted on Friday evening) and we are now at the finishing touches stage. This could turn into a long process, going from past experiences. The above shot is of our decking, with the tired looking patio furniture in place. Another job to add to the long list - sand and oil the table. Apparently the weather is going to be good this weekend so I think a BBQ may be in order.

 These are my tortoises - you may have spotted them in the previous picture. Yes they really are that tiny!

This is a photo of the lounge when I had just completed the painting. I was just having a mini break before tackling the underlay. Boy, did that kick up some dust.

 The floor is in okay condition - it just needed a sweep and clean with parquet floor cleaner. Then we had to clean it again as we could see the imprint of the underlay left behind. It was kind of a tacky residue which was left and not lifted by the first clean. This meant lots of elbow grease with a damp microfibre cloth. The residue disappeared but there is still a slight pattern which you can see from certain angles. There are also a few scratches here and there but we have kids and we are not going to get precious about the state of the floor for the time being.

   We still have some gaps in the floor, as you can see in the above photo, where the wall was knocked out to create the opening. We need to buy some more but that can wait, as we want to get the blinds bought and fitted first. Trying to find a blind for the front window is becoming a serious problem - the window is just over 3.5m wide. Not many places sell blinds that wide and the ones that do charge way too much for our miniscule budget. Luckily we have the giant hedge at the front of our house so we have enough privacy for the time being. Right, must go but I will post again soon.