January 2016 – Number 85

Filling in

Since before Christmas we’ve been back working on the box room/study again which had been left stripped bare of wallpaper for months up until this point. We bit the bullet and finally hired a plasterer who not only skimmed the walls and ceiling for us but also filled in hole and removed the unsightly vent for us too. As with almost everything in this house, there were some unforetold expenses and delays, in the form of having to have the artex checked for asbestos and the builder not doing a very good job holding the plasterboard in place around the window.

Paul and I bought some masks and goggles and took samples from artex in different rooms and had it sent off for testing for asbestos. This only delayed us for 3 or 4 days and the tests came back clear form any traces of asbestos and we gave Teo, the plasterer, the go ahead.

The issue with the unstable plaster board again only delayed the process another couple of days and Teo took care of it for us and secured it for no extra charge.

The plastering was finished on the 30th December and we didn’t touch it for a couple of weeks and allowed it to dry whist we decided how to proceed.

I’d been reading up on what should be done before painting on top of bare plaster and trawled through forums and asked friends. I’d heard lots of things about PVA and sanding down plaster, both of which is unnecessary in our case. We were left with two options, a mist coat (using watered down emulsion on the bare plaster) or just buying a bare plaster paint – which is what I decided on after reading up on each of these.

We finished the last coat of plaster paint yesterday and I’m pleased with how it’s turned out:

I used the No Nonsense Bare Plaster Paint which was £21 for 10L which covers between 100-120m2. It took two coats of this for it to have a decent cover but now the walls are all ready for painting and/or wallpapering.

We’ve been argu- debating about decor a lot recently – specifically wallpaper. Though I think we may have found one to agree on, it’s the price that’s bothering Paul more than anything. I intend to get some samples before I decide completely.

I also intend to replace the door and cupboard doors (those with keen eyes may have noticed the lack of door handle and latch – the old one was broken and we kept getting locked in the room if the wind blew the door closed, or if it was accidentally pushed).

This is not by any means the carpet we will be keeping either, we have reserved and will be paying for the carpet later on today. A friend at work recommended a little local carpet shop which we’d never considered (after I was moaning about what a tedious and expensive experience carpet shopping is). After visiting this local shop, we were offered a look at any offcuts which may be more useful and cheaper for such a room. We happened upon a roll of carpet labelled as faulty which would have been about the right size and was offered to us for £50 rather than the original £200. When Paul popped in the next day with exact measurements, he took a look at the roll and it transpired that there was nothing wrong with it, however the manager kindly offered it to us for the same price – which we have accepted.

We are now more determined than ever to get this room finished off, I’m hoping that it won’t take much longer for us to sand down and paint the skirting board, the door and cupboard frames and replace the doors as well as painting the room so we can get the carpet in, furniture in and start using this as a study before we start work on our bedroom.

On the 30th December our world was turned upside-down when we lost my much beloved dog, Tally.

I first met and handled Tally in the summer of 2004 when she was around two weeks old. she was my friend’s dog, Pip’s, puppy, and she was smaller than the palm of my hand and her eyes had just started to open. At this early stage in life she was almost all white bar the black patches on her face and hip and she suckled on my finger. At this stage though I could only hope this little one would be mine.

At four weeks I’d managed to talk my parents into letting me have a dog (at the cost of giving up my six years worth of horse riding to save money) and we went to see her and her siblings again. By now she was a little more lively and was very interested in meeting us all. She was the ‘runt’ of the litter and we fell in love with her.

Sadly though before she was ready to come home with us, we had bad news; my dad was made redundant and we were unable to afford her. I was heartbroken. Mum promised we would go to a shelter and get another dog and she phoned my friend’s mum Oriel to explain and apologise for any trouble this caused.

My mum ended the call and came to see me, crying, because Oriel had kindly offered us Tally for free, saying that she wasn’t in it for the money; it was more important for the puppies to have a loving home, which she knew we would be. We were so grateful.

So at eight weeks we brought our Tally home and our lives changed. That summer I hardly left her side and I couldn’t wait until she was fully inoculated so I could take her into the forest behind our house. I even used to walk her on the lead around the perimeter of the garden in the hope that she’d walk perfectly on a lead when we took her out for the first time (no such luck).

My brother and I pose with Tally (around 3 months?) in the garden

It wasn’t all perfect, as you can imagine, there were many ‘accidents’ as we were training her to pee and poop outside instead of on the newspaper as she was used to. We probably shouldn’t even go into all the things she did when she was teething – though I’ll never forget the telling off I got when she’d chewed a gaping hole in the upstairs landing carpet on my watch (in my defence, I did a very good job of disguising the damage).

The puppy classes we used to take her to were frustrating, we were always sat next to a very nervous fox terrier who used to used to bark a lot and once she started, Tally would follow and soon enough others would follow their example. We also discovered cocker spaniels are not the most obedient breed of dog (that’s our defence and we’re sticking to it).

Around this time, too, my mother and I had a very long game of ‘catch the (dead) pigeon’ which was in Tally’s mouth. The pigeon just appeared in our garden and we can only guess it just fell out of the sky. Tally decided she liked this new toy and was not going to give it up. I’ve never seen her run so fast around the garden, which quickly looked like a pillow fight had taken place In it. She lost the game after she started choking on all the feathers – giving us time to grab her, pull the feathers out of her nose and throat- then shamefully call on our neighbour, Lesley to actually pick up the dead bird for us.

Miffed after her first groom

She was hardly alone that year as shortly after my dad found another job, my grandmother came to visit from England and suffered a heart attack whilst with us. This resulted in a long stay in hospital and an even longer one with us before she was allowed back on a plane. She became very attached to Tally who spent most of the day next to her. Both my uncles and my great aunt also came to visit my grandma and stay. We also hosted another aunt and uncle with my two cousins prior to this so Tally spent most of her puppy-hood around people getting a lot of attention, something she always loved

Tally racing along Murlough beach

Less than a year after getting Tally, we moved to England. I have to admit, Tally had a bit of a better deal in Ireland with the large garden, the forest, beach and mountains all within walking distance.

She was a naughty little rascal most of the time and she loved to sneak upstairs, empty bins, have naps on the furniture and run away. Mum was once mortified when Tally squeezed through to a neighbouring garden and dug the biggest hole Mum had ever seen around a poor little hedgehog who had rolled up into a tight ball. Tally was covered I so much mud you could not see the colour of her.

She had her moments though and once stopped us from being burgled after a couple men came in through the back door one night and she chased them all the way up the street barking wildly until they jumped into an awaiting car and sped off.

She even “protected” us from the postman, the window cleaner, passers by, cars and most strangers who came to visit.!

Messy

Tally was never happier when she was at a beach or woods, which probably related back to her puppyhood in Ireland. Even in her last year, she still resorted to being a puppy as soon as she saw a beach or woods and would run and run. She loved visits to our caravan in Cornwall, attempting to catch the rabbits and paddling in all the rock pools.

Tally never got the hang of returning a ball. In fact she preferred the game ‘run away with the ball and bury it where it can’t be found.’ We never quite understood her logic but she loved the game and there are many, many tennis balls safely hidden for other dogs to find one day.

She loved her toys, particularly cuddly toys and every day she would bring them in one by one until she persuaded someone to play with her. She also loved dragging her blankets into the lounge.

Tally had a penchant for causing trouble, she was often found rummaging through the bin, stealing food (from someone else’s barbecue at one time) and she always lurked around people’s feet at dinner time – determined to consume any dropped morsels. If she was told off for lurking, she would move about a foot away and continue lurking thinking this was now okay.

Smiling

She was such a character: so clever, funny and loving and her passing away has left a gaping Tally-shaped hole in many of us.

Number 85

Month: January 2016

The study

Tally