The Final Countdown

So, we enter the last few days of drama. The last chance to make decisions that we may have to live with for many years to come. The first crunch day came and went with failure; the second crunch day came and went with failure. What of the third? Would there even be a third?

No, I'm not talking about politics.

I'm talking about the imminent completion of our building works. Because, yay verily, and forsooth, the windows and doors were delivered at the third time of asking.

And since they arrived on site, a mere six days ago, we've moved from having a non-weather-tight, cold, dark, concrete-floored cave, to a place that is almost a complete room, needing only a coat or two of paint and the final fit of the electrical sockets. There's even carpet. It's almost unimaginable. BigBear was away for most of this final process, only arriving home yesterday to a transformed home.

The only thing was, we spent a huge amount of time several months ago debating colour schemes, and then (when the windows were delayed) we rather shelved all thoughts of finishing details. The process of reaching any kind of consensus had been sufficiently painful, we had no desire to revisit it. Actually, this is sounding more like Brexit all the time.

The process had gone something like this...

I would become wedded to an idea, and announce it eagerly to BigBear, who wouldn't like it. So I would abandon my idea in a huff, and start planning another idea. Meanwhile, BigBear would give careful thought to my idea, and adapt it to something he liked. By that time I was about three ideas further on, and would dismiss his idea, despite it indubitably bearing a striking resemblance to something that only days before had been the one thing in the world I absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, wanted more than anything else at all. Yes, I am a nightmare to live with. He's a very patient man.

Despite my capricious whims, and BigBear's rather more measured approach, we did eventually converge on a colour scheme we were happy with. And then all we had to do was find the paints that actually satisfied that scheme. And the fabrics for lampshades and cushions. I acquired quite a lot of samples.

 

 

How many shades of grey and pinkish grey are there?

You can probably see where this colour scheme is going now

Before BigBear went away, we painted patches of our final colours on the walls as testers, and waited for daylight to finally be shed upon them.

But... oh dear... the shedding of daylight revealed that I utterly hated one of our chosen colours. Frantic email consultation across the Atlantic revealed that BigBear "trusted my judgement". Brave man. (Though it did lead me to ponder, mostly in jest, to a friend that if BigBear trusted my judgement, couldn't I have just chosen the colour scheme without him all along?)

However, within a day of my change of heart, these arrived...

Calamine and Dimpse it is

And then I got busy with my sewing machine and converted a pillowcase I'd found in John Lewis, with the help of some lengths of linen I'd bought, into two cushions, to go with the ready-made cushion I'd also bought.

Cushion fronts

Cushion backs

The custom-made Etsy lampshades also arrived, and my house is now full of even more boxes and piles of "stuff" until any of this can actually be inserted into the finished room.

My house is even more full of dust than it is full of boxes, as the diligent weekend builders have spent all weekend working furiously and have, amongst many things, completed all the plastering. It was sufficiently riveting that I got a good twenty minutes sat peacefully with a cup of coffee on Sunday morning while this happened:

Plastering as spectator sport. In pyjamas

.

I was going to add a picture of the room as it is now, but given it's only a matter of a couple of days until it's really, actually properly finished, I shall wait for the final denouement.