Getting organised and homely

Carol decided she needed a new table for cutting and sewing fabric, as the oval table top she was using was not entirely suitable. We looked at a table in the Brocante in town, before heading off to Emmaus, the charity shop in Perpignan. We had a good look around and we bought a new dining room table and chairs, and a small chest of drawers. It took two trips in the Skoda to bring all our purchases home, but it was not long before we were using it.

We then spent the next few days getting the lounge more homely, with a fabric infill for the wooden screen we bought from Alain's second hand shop next to the mediatec (library). We treated the wooden frame for woodworm, and then polished it before stretching over a piece of fabric for the front and a plain piece for the back.

We chose a nice modern leafy design that went well with the lounge suite and curtains.

I was delegated to stapling while Carol stretched the fabric.

Nice result.

Next up was a little project to re-use some of the timber left over from dismantling the three-quarter bed frame that was in the ground floor bedroom (now my painting studio)

It took me a little time to work out the dimensions for it to fit snugly into the alcove above the cave (Cellar) and between the studio and the stairwell. I want to use the new shelving unit to store canvases and the stretcher frames I will use to make new canvases. So I measured several times before cutting and piecing together the wood. All my materials fit into the unit, stretcher bars, and some made up canvases.

Now it it fits exactly into the alcove, with a little room behind it, to pull out the stored Z bed in the event that we have more than two guests at a time, when someone will have to sleep in the studio.

Carol then hemmed up another lace curtain to fit over the glazed studio door to the street at the back of the house.

It is not all jobs around the house; we take time to socialise too, with Jane and Tony in Jane's back garden, just across the market square from our end.