We have just come back from a 3-month stay in Europe. Mostly to find furniture for our shop, but also to keep working on the house. We managed to finish 3 bedrooms and part of the hall. We had our first visitors to stay for 2 weeks in June which was so exciting to share our dream with friends. The worst room was tackled first before I ran out of energy! It is a lot bigger than what I first imagined as it has a sloping roof making it feel smaller. There were cracks all over the walls and the paper ripped and stained from the flood that happened 15 years ago when the tiles flew off the roof in a big storm. Left unchecked the rain seeped in for a few months ruining walls and floors. Lucky the roof was renewed before we bought the house. The wallpaper in this room was not nice enough to save, so I painted over it for the time being. One part of the sloping ceiling plaster had fallen off exposing the wooden battens and the roof above. Hundreds of spiders, plaster and dust kept falling out as I cleaned 
I found an antique bedroom set at the local auction that I painted up to suit the room. I brought over from NZ some material to cover the swan sofa that has beautiful illustrations of swans all over it. The small dormer window looks over the garden and the countryside beyond. Also. The clock tower in the village is a prominent figure when looking out at the garden. On the hour the village bell rings bringing a smile to my lips. We think this was the maids' room which is still not finished but at least now it can be slept in.
