It’s that time of year; all the summer’s guests have gone home now, leaving the house feeling empty and quiet; the mornings are cool and misty and the nights are drawing in, though it can still be sunny and warm during the daytime.

Work continues in both houses; Nick and Kieran have installed the kitchen units in the gite, so the room’s ready for decorating now. I thought I’d just give the walls a quick coat of emulsion, until I looked a little more closely at the chimneybreast; what a hotchpotch of gloss paint, polyfilla and wallpaper! When I scraped the paper off, the plaster came with it, so Nick had to replaster some of it, not leaving a great finish. It seemed like a good idea to crepi it as this covers a multitude of sins; crepi is somewhere between thick paint and rough, sandy plaster and is applied with a trowel. I’ve never had a lot of success with plaster, so I wasn’t too surprised when the pile of crepi landing at my feet was growing at an alarming rate, but the coverage on the wall was minimal, at best. Nick, being otherwise occupied, just laughed at my distress and said I obviously needed more practice! After many very frustrating hours, and using techniques which I don’t think are recommended (akin to finger-painting!), I finally got enough crepi to stick, to cover the walls. You could describe the finish as rustic, I suppose!

When not chopping and stacking the huge pile of firewood we had delivered, Nick and Kieran have finished plasterboarding the upstairs walls and the downstairs ceilings and put in the bathroom wall, so we’re waiting for the electrician to come back before they can plasterboard the downstairs walls. Little by little, we’re making progress.