I took last week off work so I could work on the house. We're still decorating upstairs but at least the front bedroom is finished now. The middle bedroom has paint on 3 of the walls. The 4th wall will be ready to paint soon, when the plaster is dry. We had to re-plaster part of the wall behind the radiator because the plaster was all dry and crumbly.

Downstairs is a complete mess. We got someone to come in to treat the damp in the front and middle rooms. As a result they are a complete mess at the moment. The carpets have been ripped up and the plaster taken off the bottom metre or so of the wall. We're waiting for them to come back and re-plaster soon.

Despite the house having central heating (a huge improvement on our rented house), we can't actually use it at the moment because half of the radiators have been removed. The ones downstairs for the damp proof course, the ones upstairs for decorating or plastering reasons.

I seem to have spent most of the week up a ladder, stripping wallpaper, painting or filling holes or cracks in the plaster. My shoulders and neck are aching a bit as a result.