Decorating!

It's been a really busy week!
We've decorated the living room! After eighteen months of putting it off, having valid (and not so valid) excuses, we knuckled down and did it. It looks wonderful. In fact I think we should feel really proud of ourselves because we've done a really good job of it, for novices! It just looks so clean and bright and fresh, which is lovely.
The biggest job was clearing everything out of the room. We've got a lot of stuff and alot of the stuff we've got lives in the living room. So Sunday was devoted to clearing, sorting, moving and shifting before we were ready to actually do anything. It's amazing how big the room looks when there's very little in it! We then washed down the walls with sugar soap (see doing things properly!) and sanded down the skirting boards and the door frames.
Monday we gave the ceiling a once over (after a lovely visit to see Steve's family and a huge lunch and Steve's fantastic simnel cake) but the light was bad, so we gave up quickly and left it until Tuesday.
Tuesday was a great day! We painted the ceiling, twice- a second coat to make sure we did the bits that we missed, then we painted the walls. Dad popped round and had great fun watching us paint while he sat on the sofa in the sunshine! We got two coats of the wall done- and got ourselves splattered with paint, but it was worth it.
Wednesday we gave one of the walls another once over, as it looked a bit patchy and then did the horrible glossing. I didn't enjoy that so much. It was fiddly and awkward and the paint smells horrible, but it looks nice and shiny now.
Today we've put everything back- well a few things back anyway, sorted out some books to take to the charity shop and almost got things straight here again...
But there has been a distraction. Recently, my 10 year savings account matured and I got a nice cheque from it. Most of it will go towards paying off my various student debts, but I thought there was an opportunity for a little treat too, so I bought a new Cambridge Audio Amp and a 5.1 speaker kit. We got it all connected up last night and I have to say it's pretty damn awesome. We've been testing it out with a few DVDs today and it just sounds fantastic! A really good investment I reckon!

Coming up this weekend is my brother's stag do. I wonder if it'll be more fun than all the organising would suggest? I'll let you know!