So that we could get some quality renovating time over the Labour Day weekend, we decided that Shirleen would leave home around 3 ‘ish on Friday afternoon and pick me up at Watergardens station.

Everything went to plan until the long weekend traffic curse hit, taking Shirleen 2h 45m to get to Watergardens… a trip which would normally take around 1hr 15min. Once we passed Gisborne the traffic thinned out and we had a reasonable trip to Charlton arriving around 8:15 pm.

The aim this trip was to start preparing and painting what will be my study, so Saturday morning we set about starting the prep work. Shirleen exercised her now considerable skill at removing layers of old paint from woodwork, whilst I filled all the cracks and gouges in the plaster.

During the morning I took a break from the study to reconfigure the watering system we had set up for the fruit trees, as one of the old established orange trees was looking a bit dry and sick. Happy to report that a good soaking with the hose has seen it perk up considerably. We will, however, reserve judgement on the trees we transplanted from Somerville.

I also took some time to visit mum on Saturday morning to wish her a happy 87th birthday which was the day before.

By Saturday evening Shirleen had stripped around half the window and I had finished filling, skimming and sanding the walls, so Sunday was to be the start of the exciting bit… painting over the horrible grotty blue walls with our carefully chosen colour scheme… mushroomy walls with contrasting picture rail and cornice.

Painting started in earnest Sunday morning and by early evening we had finished cutting in the picture rails and cornice and the walls below the picture rails were  completed with their first coat.

After cleaning up both the painting equipment and ourselves we headed off to dear friends Ross and Peggy’s for our now regular 5 o’clock drinks and nibbles.

Whilst I continued painting on Monday morning Shirleen attended to some regular (and boring) housework, which always seems to get neglected for the “fun stuff”. By about 2 we had packed up our belongings and were ready to return to Somerville, happy with a productive and fun long weekend.

Roll on next trip where we will continue our weeken’s work to make the study look schmick!

The study when we bought the house.

The study now.