Hearth and home

These last two days have been Super Great Fun, in that 'thisishardworkbutwithagreatoutcome' sort of way. Phase I of recarpeting the house was completed today, with a lot of preparation done yesterday and Sunday afternoon. From now on, if someone casually mentions that they are recarpeting, I will knowingly smile and nod and wonder if they, like me, are aware of the ramifications of that simple statement. It's essentially like moving house. We had to pack up and take out ALL the furniture in the three bedrooms, lounge and hallway, and this after just starting to unpack the boxes we so happily received last week. Not that we're grumbling in any way as we are absolutely thrilled with today's result. With the poor house in a shell-state last night we slept over at the Camerons, getting back here early this morning to let the Carpeter in. Also yesterday, as part of the renovations and falling in with the carpeting timing, was the replacement of the hearth. It was generally felt that the chipped slate tiles needed some sort of facelift. We had not anticipated such a radical change as the whole hearth was stripped away with no lack of billowing clouds of concrete dust, and replaced with a HUGE slab of bluestone. It looks very smart indeed.