Today was my only day off this week and the last day off before the big move. But before I could continue with my renovations I had to do my groceries. I wrote a list to be sure not to forget anything...

Then off I went to my favourite place...

I had lots of “finishing the boring shit before I start making my living room pretty” to do. Sanding joints mainly but also this devilishly complex return. I forgot to take an outside photo but the bracing of the boards gave my house a “ready for the zombie apocalypse” look...

The firefighter was there to help but I couldn’t help thinking “what the fuck am I paying her for” by mid-morning. Then I remembered I’m not paying her so I got over it...

Later, once she’d stopped lying in the garden smoking cigs, she spotted this. An antique iron I’d been using as a window stop. This antique wasn’t discovered in my barn but is, in fact, a family heirloom. It’s been in my family since my mother stole it from a pub in Manchester...

She decided it would make a wonderful and fitting handle for the sliding door that separates my bathroom from my laundry room and made it so...

After having fitted it she realised the end opens on a hinge to allow you to place a hot coal inside...

So now it’s not only a funky and functional handle, it can be used to place pretty shit in. And, once my lavender is in full bloom, it’ll make the bathroom smell pretty as well...

The dogs have spent as much time as me at the new house over the last fortnight. Now, whenever I don my Mapp-covered renovation jeans the big dog knows he’s going there and gets super-excited. Then he arrives and is just so content. This makes me enormously happy...

And so the day finished. I move in in six days time. The living room will look like this when I do, though maybe I’ll have the chance to apply a few strips of toiles de verre to the walls before then if I get a couple of early darts from work, but I’m happy enough with that...