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My niece is made of win, peoples!
Oct. 26th, 2010 10:05 pmSpent most of today over my Mam's house, helping Mam and my sister with redecorating Mam's living/dining room. Well, I say helping, more like not hindering since I pretty much fail on decorating.
So aside from making cups of tea and coffee at appropriate intervals, I did a little bit of wallpaper stripping (Mam had already done most of it herself over the last few weeks) and washed the mouldy corner of the dining area with some Milton solution before Mam painted it with anti-mould paint. I then started picking up the wallpaper, and the old polystyrene coving Mam was in the process of tearing off the top of the walls. My niece Jessica, tiring of her colouring, came to help me and between the two of us we filled three binbags full.
Rowan, being a typical eight year old boy, declined to get stuck in himself, but he did help out from time to time.
While we were picking up, my sister had taken a quick break from papering and was vacuuming Mam's corner of the living room. The plan was that as she completed each corner, the relevant furniture would be returned to it's usual place to minimise the disruption. So when she was done, it was decided that the tiny bits of paper all over the dining area carpet should be hoovered up too, and Jessica quickly volunteered to do this.
So I spent the next hour or so following my six-year-old niece as she attempted to hoover around the skirting boards of the dining area. *grins* She doesn't quite have the knack for getting everything up, but she was extremely methodical! Half the time she was futzing around just with the suction pipe, not the actual vacuum attachment! *laughs*
When she eventually decided she was done, we all lavished suitable praise on her for her efforts - completely genuine too, as she had done a very good job! I then went back over the area of carpet to get the bits she'd missed.
It wasn't too much longer afterwards that Dad got in from work. By this point, Sarah was about halfway through the living area. Would have been better if they'd been able to get started earlier so as to have gotten Dad's corner done by then, but they'd had to spend the morning on errands instead. So I did my best to distract Dad with conversation in the kitchen; he was tired from a hard day at work and grumpy at finding the house in such disarray, but we managed to have a fairly lengthy conversation, during which time I also did some sandwiches for the kids.
Dad's mood worsened once Sarah had to start drilling in preparation for Mam's new curtain rail, but I gently encouraged him to retreat to his room - as Mam had expected him to do from the start, to be honest. It was pretty late by this time, and when I took him a coffee later he'd dozed off on his bed. I expect he didn't want to turn his computer on since the curtain rail in there fell down some years ago and he's never bothered to get it put back up. Hence, to sit at his desk he would have had to put the main light on, making his room visible to everyone outside.
When I brought Rowan home about half-seven tonight, Sarah was just getting started on the archway that separates the living area from the dining area. It's looking quite decent. Hopefully they won't be up too late tonight getting the dining area done. And hopefully Mam's not started a row with Dad about the adults not having any tea this evening... I know I was quite hungry, but neither Mam nor Sarah had any appetite and Dad was settling for snacking on biscuits. Of course, since he's working tomorrow, he should really have been settling down for the night when we left....
So aside from making cups of tea and coffee at appropriate intervals, I did a little bit of wallpaper stripping (Mam had already done most of it herself over the last few weeks) and washed the mouldy corner of the dining area with some Milton solution before Mam painted it with anti-mould paint. I then started picking up the wallpaper, and the old polystyrene coving Mam was in the process of tearing off the top of the walls. My niece Jessica, tiring of her colouring, came to help me and between the two of us we filled three binbags full.
Rowan, being a typical eight year old boy, declined to get stuck in himself, but he did help out from time to time.
While we were picking up, my sister had taken a quick break from papering and was vacuuming Mam's corner of the living room. The plan was that as she completed each corner, the relevant furniture would be returned to it's usual place to minimise the disruption. So when she was done, it was decided that the tiny bits of paper all over the dining area carpet should be hoovered up too, and Jessica quickly volunteered to do this.
So I spent the next hour or so following my six-year-old niece as she attempted to hoover around the skirting boards of the dining area. *grins* She doesn't quite have the knack for getting everything up, but she was extremely methodical! Half the time she was futzing around just with the suction pipe, not the actual vacuum attachment! *laughs*
When she eventually decided she was done, we all lavished suitable praise on her for her efforts - completely genuine too, as she had done a very good job! I then went back over the area of carpet to get the bits she'd missed.
It wasn't too much longer afterwards that Dad got in from work. By this point, Sarah was about halfway through the living area. Would have been better if they'd been able to get started earlier so as to have gotten Dad's corner done by then, but they'd had to spend the morning on errands instead. So I did my best to distract Dad with conversation in the kitchen; he was tired from a hard day at work and grumpy at finding the house in such disarray, but we managed to have a fairly lengthy conversation, during which time I also did some sandwiches for the kids.
Dad's mood worsened once Sarah had to start drilling in preparation for Mam's new curtain rail, but I gently encouraged him to retreat to his room - as Mam had expected him to do from the start, to be honest. It was pretty late by this time, and when I took him a coffee later he'd dozed off on his bed. I expect he didn't want to turn his computer on since the curtain rail in there fell down some years ago and he's never bothered to get it put back up. Hence, to sit at his desk he would have had to put the main light on, making his room visible to everyone outside.
When I brought Rowan home about half-seven tonight, Sarah was just getting started on the archway that separates the living area from the dining area. It's looking quite decent. Hopefully they won't be up too late tonight getting the dining area done. And hopefully Mam's not started a row with Dad about the adults not having any tea this evening... I know I was quite hungry, but neither Mam nor Sarah had any appetite and Dad was settling for snacking on biscuits. Of course, since he's working tomorrow, he should really have been settling down for the night when we left....
