So, it’s the week before Christmas and everyone’s trees are up, lights are sparkling and baubles are bouncing. Hmmmm. Everyone’s except mine. At the end of last week a huge tree, which used to be way higher than the building you can just about see, fell over in the storms next to my house, leaving me searching for injured squirrels in the rain on my birthday…
Unsurprisingly, I then came down with a birthday stinker of a cold, though still managed to have a lovely time at Love2Eat with Manchester man of the moment Mike Garry (did you read that amazing blog post?!) reciting his poetry and a bottle of Heaven Hill for several hot toddies
Gained a bit of momentum at the start of this week and popped out for an hour to a festive garden event in West Didsbury where I was given a beautiful recycled and hand-hammered bulb planting knife by Brenda from Bud, such a nice surprise 🙂
Then my paternal disaster area RipRap kindly gave me a vomiting sickness bug on Tuesday which wiped me out til Thursday. Even Missy got it and could barely move from under the blanket…..
Finally today, whilst sanding and varnishing the stair handrails in the tenants communal hallway, in a desperate attempt to get it looking something like presentable before Christmas, the Henry hoover tumbled down the stairs and landed in my face. I so need a holiday, never mind Xmas day off!
Despite all of the above, I’m really pleased with the way the refurbishment of the communal hallway has come on. The bumpy walls and wood chip have gone, the dire pink carpet, the mahogany staining, the battered magnolia paint – it’s looking a zillion times better already even though there’s still carpets and wallpaper to finish. It’s very important for communal areas and gardens to look and feel fantastic, almost be an enjoyable and sometimes usable space for tenants. So often landlords really neglect these areas – crazy, imho, because how good or bad they look impacts on how tenants feel about the the property they live in and can hugely affect how quickly properties let when an apartment become vacant.
Luckily lots of the original features were intact in this hallway, plus some features have been added. It’s been a lot of hard work – look how many spindles there are. That area ringed is where we’d to Stanley blade off all the old paint… on both sides!! We’re nearly there, just a few more days. Who knows, I may even get our tree & decs up before New Year at this rate 😉
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