The Big Switch - Part V

A lot has been accomplished here since I last showed you the Big Switch's progress! See for yourself:

Wednesday

In the former living room/new bedroom, all paintwork was finished Tuesday afternoon. After I came home from our visit to the palace grounds, I moved my computer desk and computer from the Third Room, as described already two posts back. On Wednesday morning, I set things up on the desk nearly exactly the way they had been in my old bedroom:

Next, I moved the bookcase in from the Third Room: 

At 10:00, Friend-who-paints  arrived. Because it is too high to fit through the doors in my flat, we had to take the wardrobe completely apart and stacked some bits already where they were going to be needed on Friday for the setting up. The chest of drawers that you've seen on most of my "fashion" shots was moved to its final place, too:

While I was busy cleaning the chest of drawers inside out and re-stacking it with its original contents (bedlinen, towels, undies and the like), paintwork in the former bedroom/new living room was progressing rapidly: 

 By 20 past 4, I had cleaned and re-stocked the bookcase, too:

The doorbell rang, and the professional painter who was going to put on the wallpaper delivered the rolls, and I saw them for the first time "for real", not just as a relatively small square piece in a pattern book:
 

My sister popped in after work and, together with Friend-who-paints, moved the bed from its old to its new home - tonight I was going to sleep in here for the first time! (In my bed, that is; I have slept in this room before, but only on the settee when I had house guests who had use of my bedroom.)

Thursday

The warmest day of the week - in the afternoon, my Mum measured 23 Celsius on her balcony! I was up and ready in time for the wallpaper man.

Mr. Wallpaper prepared the two walls we had stripped on Saturday, smoothing over any uneven bits - as you can see, there were quite a few of those. They don't matter much when a wall is simply painted over, but with patterned paper, the surface has to be perfectly smooth and even.

Kay, this one is for you :-)

The plasterwork had to dry over night, and I couldn't do anything else. Since it was such an unbelievably glorious day, I went out as soon as the work was done, talking my Mum into yet another walk, this time on the fields.
We went to one of the large farms out there; this one has a farm shop, café and play area for children. At the shop, my Mum bought fresh strawberries (not from the farm - it is too early yet for strawberries in our area), and we ate some while resting on a sunny bench. They were the first strawberries I've had this seaon, and their scent, taste, the sun, birdsong, being out here with my Mum and knowing the Big Switch was going so well all made for a moment of utter bliss.

Friday

At 11:00, the first roll of wallpaper was up in the new bedroom - I was delighted!
 

Two hours later, the entire wall was finished, and I was even more delighted - it turned out just the way I had imagined when I chose the paper back in February:

At precisely 3.00 pm, Mr. Wallpaper announced "Finished!" from the new living room, and finished he was:

RJ and I had been putting up the wardrobe in the bedroom. We had it completed and at its final destination by half past four:

Wardrobe, bed, bedside table, lamp and teddy bears were all in place: 

I wasn't allowed to open the windows yet in the two rooms. Mr. Wallpaper said the glue needed to dry slowly and evenly, not by receiving blasts of air from wide open windows. I wasn't particularly looking forward to sleeping in an un-aired bedroom, but that was going to be a small price to pay for what I consider to be a thoroughly successful Big Switch!
Besides, I cheated a little and opened the window a tiny bit over night, with the blinds down, so that no "blasts of air" were going to hit the wall, but I'd be able to breathe.

Next, I restocked the wardrobe - the Third Room was looking more and more like itself again by the minute, and I felt more and more at home in the new bedroom at the same rate:

At half past 9:00 pm, I brought in the vases that have been living on top of the chest of drawers for years - and then I was so knackered I didn't feel like doing any more work for the day.

Saturday

Today, I moved the bed into the corner just the way it had been in the old bedroom. Some people had advised me against it, but this is, after all, my room; I sleep here, and I've been used to it being like that for 8 years. Having more space between bed and wardrobe matters more to me than being able to walk up to the bed from both sides.

The smaller of the two sideboards was moved to the living room today, too, as well as the old armchair and the coffee table:
 

The armchair is most likely not going to stay. It does not fit the new colour scheme, and having it upholstered in matching fabric would cost a fortune. My new settee is scheduled to be delivered next week Friday.

Part of today was spent at IKEA, where we bought the lamps I wanted and had already chosen online. Later, I treated all the wooden surfaces with beeswax polish, and cleaned the glass surfaces (coffee table and glass cabinet doors).

Tomorrow, I will put the drawers back into the small sideboard and the shelf boards into the big one, and then bring their contents back in. The weather is forecast to be as awful tomorrow as it has been today (cold and rainy), so I won't be missing out on anything out there.

Well, that's the Big Switch for the moment - I'll show you the rest probably next weekend, when the new settee will be here and the finishing touches will have been made to both rooms.