Work. Wood. Wall cupboards. Work. Weirs. Waiting. Wallpaper and a bit more Work.
That’s our week – how’s your week been?
This weekend, we will be getting the wall cupboards and the final work done on the kitchen – thanks, Ben.
It’s been a week of sanding, oiling, seriously admiring and stroking the tactile curves and smoothness of our beautiful beech wood kitchen worktop/breakfast bar. We now have 2 immaculate high stools thanks to a bit of recycling courtesy of Facebook marketplace and a delightful lady in a gorgeous converted barn who decided they didn’t want them any more. Waste not – want not. (That’s a couple of Ws I’d forgotten!)
Early in the week, Work involved some volunteering. This week we were near our boat mooring itself, collecting litter, including hoovering up a Henry alongside the River Soar (why?); painting the bridge over the Weir, clearing the weir itself of debris amassed during the floods; and making good damaged handrails.
Later in the week, work was hugely varied involving house bathroom upgrading, higher education strategic workshop planning, HEA Principal Fellow discussions, charitable applications, and fundraising comms.
In between, we’ve been recycling and taking trips to tips and charity shops for ourselves and other members of the family.
Whilst we are waiting for the completion of the stoppage work that Canal River Trust is undertaking at Birstall Lock ahead of us, we wait. We are having no problem filling the time – including the delight this week of an exclusive invitation to a portrait gallery exhibition at a special 7 year old’s school. His self-portrait was brilliant, and I’m honestly not biased!
We made it up to Birstall this week to see how work there was going. What do you think – will it be open on 28th March as currently predicted?
And.. we finally made a decision about a now exposed wall in the new kitchen. We are going to give it the wallpaper treatment- the only bit of such decoration on board. We decided on a subtle, abstract design…only to find we couldn’t just walk into a shop and buy a roll. Oh no, we had to order online and wait a week, and we only decided on what we wanted two days before we need to out it up. So this morning found us charging round Leicester to find what was available so we could get it up before the wall cupboards arrive this weekend. Is it subtle? Is it abstract? No. And No.
As you can see, we took the wall (fortunately not a bulkhead!) out to a convenient nearby pub table (thanks to The Waterside) and papered it off the boat!
As you can also see – no subtlety involved! Piratical parrots, though minus pieces of eight, seemed strangely but suitably nautical!
We can guarantee it will be a very different looking nb Preaux that sets off this coming week thanks to all these efforts!
Pickingupducks 