You can get an idea of our final design layout with the paper shapes cleverly placed on the floor to represent the furniture...
And a lovely carpet sample... the man is coming tomorrow to measure up and hopefully it will be down on the floor by next week!
Can you hear the gospel choir singing? Well this weekend was the straw that broke the camels back with Mum's internet connection... Paying an inordinate amount of money for an 'always on' connection that was barely on for more than 10 minutes from Friday to Sunday. Anyway... the nice lady at NTL booked an engineer to visit the same day and he came and gave us a new modem to boot. We also upgraded plans for a month to see if that makes a difference... we are now at a blistering 4Mbps (whoohoo dont laugh Matt Mr. 100000Mbps). Well needless to say with a new modem, improved connection and deleting all Mum's cookies (which took about 10 minutes) the connection is super quick. Full marks to NTL really for getting it sorted within 6 hours of the initial call... lets hope all things remain working smoothly... or else we will do the dreaded switch back to BT!
Im going to take some of these wallpapers and set up a market stall down at Swinton precinct doing my new 'Urban ultra modern temporary tattoos'... available in the classic Dulux colours of Morning Light and Timeless. Do you think they will catch on? 
Painted most of the day... Ceiling has had its first coat of Timeless rich matt emulsion and then started on the walls. This was chosen to be Morning Light of the Light and Space paint range, which is supposed to be twice as reflective to brighten the room. Its tough going though as it is a bobbly wallpaper so requires lots of pressure on the roller to get into all the nooks... makes my puny arms ache... so anyway... with all the edging that has to be done to complete the task I only got half way round the room, but the good news is that the walls around the window have their first coat. Only two pretty simple walls left to do... so all is good.
Just made it to the corner by tea time so a good point to stop. The walls will have a couple of days to dry as I am off to York for the Society for General Microbiology Annual Conference. Should be a laugh...not! Will be good to keep my hand in, and get my brain back into a more general science gear after being so concenrated on one thing for the last 3 years... scary!
My love of decorating started at an early age... Here I am aged 4 and a bit helping out Dad and my spaghetti legs brother Matty! Note the standard safety wear of the era... leather effect slipper to prevent nasty splinters from the big plank of wood on my delicate little feet.
To this day I still cannot really concentrate with my mouth closed. How exciting though... being able to spray a massive water pistol inside the house... right at the living room walls! How often do you get to do that?! Hmmm, I'm sure dungarees were not even in fashion in 1983, especially when sporting such a charming paunch... I'm convinced it is the result of wheat intolerance, well thats my story and im sticking to it!
I only worked out how to smile on photographs by the age of about 25. Clearly here I was not too cluey... safety first though... one hand on the rail at all times.
Well day two of papering and I was ready for action. Mainly because the hard part was done already. Todays task was basically two easy walls (only one socket) and the window which turned out to be pretty easy. Please also note the new dimmer switch installation, ready for some new fancy light to be put up. Any suggestions on a modern lighting solution for a bedroom?
OK, so this was the bit I wasnt looking forward to... the wallpaper. Ive stripped and lovingly prepared the walls of my old room in readiness... but thats just fancy cleaning... and im pretty good at cleaning, its my OCD speciality. So anyway... Ive got all the bits and calculated the number of rolls I need. Better get on with it then. Slap the wallpaper snot on, slosh it on, slap it up. Its not that bad. Makes it easier that Dad's plumb line marks are still on the plaster behind and the walls have not shifted. Peasy easy.
First bit done... dont get cocky though.. this is just the flat bit. A blind monkey could do that. 
Now this is true wallpapering school testing zone. Two sockets and three corners all in the space of three widths of paper! This one took me a little bit longer and a few more swear words, but I made it out the other side... All that and not even through two whole rolls of paper... but thats enough for one day.
Four wallpapers and three colours... i think that has narrowed the field somewhat... there is SO much choice!
I have been encountering large volumes of plastic hangers, in all storage areas of the house... I had to take action. I gathered up all hangers I could lay my hands on and dumped them in a big pile... and then the obsessive compulsive part of my brain took over and ordered them into piles of the same. I then allowed Mum to retrieve any sentimental hangers and only put back as many good ones of each type that would fit on a rail. No more hiding them away in drawers or boxes... although I know there are probably millions in other secret places. The same problem seems to be apparent for "nice" carrier bags. There is nothing nice about 100 bags stuffed in a drawer! So I saved the nicest few and the rest are on Salford tip! He he!
Mums last ditch attempt to dive on the hangers and save them from being crushed up by big tractor machines on the tip... sorry... too late!
OK so all the walls and surfaces are sanded, prepped and ready for paint / paper.
Quite proud of my repair job on the window ledge... we will see if it holds up to the test of time I suppose...
So if I thought the last four years of uni were hard... here is the next challenge. Turn this pigsty into a respectable second guest room fit for a king (with enough storage to house two elephants).
Carolines sister in law, Dad, husband, mother and brother (L-R) 
The whole Plumb clan
