peace and roses

  It has been such a nice morning so far. Without having to make sure everyone was up and ready and out of the way by 8, it has felt like a leisurely start to the day. we were still up early and ready as usual, but without the sense of urgency of the past three weeks.
It's wonderful to make changes to your home but the thing I miss most is the freedom of the house. There is no choice but to shut yourself out of the way to let them get on, you can't use the house as you normally do, not always possible to get out if you need to, and even going to the loo is dicey in case someone tries to get in or the water is turned off (both of which has happened a few times since June). When it's all over and your home is yours again it is the best feeling ever. The changes have been made, and you're able to move around, go anywhere, do anything and not feel that you're in the way, awkward, or looking like you're spying on them. It's blissful. And quiet. No loud thuds and drilling. Blissful!

Last night we all tried out the bath. It is gorgeous. The room is so totally different it doesn't feel like our bathroom, it's like using a fancy one when you stay in a cottage in the Cotswolds or Cornwall. Bit of a pinch me moment really, can't quite believe it's ours. Still feel that way about the kitchen too. Thankful, that's for certain.

Two roses were blooming on the arbour over the gate so I've climbed up to pick them. This must be the last of the roses now I'm sure.

The plan today was to show what had been done yesterday by the Project 2 people, and share the plans. But oh my goodness, 10.45 and they haven't turned up yet you say? Yep. No one is here yet. And this is why I've been so reluctant to talk about it, I could say exactly what the plans are, but since starting on the 16th August with the intention of it being finished by the end of September before work on the bathroom started, here we are no further on. It is doing my head in. Every time we think that it's really going to start taking shape it stops. And if we hadn't got this far (even though it's not exactly very far), I'd happily say let's forget it. Clearly not something we are destined to have completed. I will probably - and hopefully - have to eat my words as yesterday I didn't hear them turn up until I heard a noise and went to investigate, only to find them getting on with things. They weren't here very long, but at least they were here with the words 'we'll be here earlier tomorrow'. Ho hum. Time will tell.

Also had a lovely time putting things back to normal upstairs. After weeks of having plastic protecting the floor upstairs it has gone, the floor beneath revealed and cleaned. We've left it on the stairs and by the front door for now and I cannot wait for when I can get rid of that too.
The airing cupboard is back in use. More organised than it has ever been. Now I can see exactly where things are, and get to them easily too. It's time to work through the pillowcases now, I know I have too many I need to reduce the amount.

Something nice happened to Violet yesterday. Last week she lost her air pods. She uses them daily so really missed them. I gave her my headphone things for the phone and told her she could have those as I didn't use them. But she really wanted her air pods. One was found inside Bill's van. He'd picked her up one day and we assumed they had fallen out in there, but despite having a thorough search neither case nor missing air pod could be found. Bill suggested she ask at reception at college, which she did. And amazingly enough, there was her air pod case with the missing air pod inside. She's cleaned them up,they still work, but what a lovely thing. Someone found it and bothered to hand it in. Such a small thing, but a really nice thing. To remind us that good things happen and there are nice people in the world.