Curious Caledonians out now!

In June this year, I had the wonderful opportunity to return to Australia and continue my research work on music Scottish emigrants who took their music collections with them to Australia. It was a crazy, invigorating, inspiring and exhausting trip! On my previous visit, I was mostly working alone and could only imagine the music in my mind (though I did record two if the songs as well) but this time a whole team of musicians were also part of the process! We now have a stunning album, which not only showcases some fantastic tunes, but also brings to life some really unusual music that hasn’t been performed in almost two hundred years. Here are some further details, taken from the Evergreen Ensemble Facebook page:

Evergreen Ensemble continues their fascinating journey into the sound world of colonial Australia with this enchanting album of instrumental and vocal music drawn from the music collections of Sydney Living Museums and the State Library of New South Wales. Bringing together Australia and Scotland’s finest Early Music talent and iconic folk artists, Evergreen Ensemble weaves stories back through time, rediscovering the sounds of folk melodies performed on period instruments.

For their new album Curious Caledonians, ensemble director and violinist Shane Lestideau has invited four renowned guest musicians to bring their specialised knowledge of eighteenth and nineteenth-century performance styles to the recording. With the help of Scottish researcher, Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, they have delved deep into the nation’s musical archives to discover treasures hidden in the personal music books and manuscripts lovingly bound together by their owners for safe-keeping. Much of this music bears the unmistakable flavour of Scotland: strathspeys and reels, haunting Gaelic airs and arrangements of favourite Scottish songs and tunes. It gives us the chance to ‘listen at the window’ of a Scottish-Australian house in the nineteenth century and consider what place these songs, piano duets and quadrilles may have had in their lives.

The album features the dulcet tones of mezzo-soprano Allegra Giagu and soprano Claire Patti, with Claire also appearing on Celtic harp. Australian violinists Shane Lestideau and Ben Dollman (Australian Brandenburg Orchestra) are joined by Aaron McGregor of the renowned Scottish Baroque ensemble Concerto Caledonia, with acclaimed Australian Baroque cellist Daniel Yeadon completing the string section. Performing on an authentic 19th-century Collard & Collard square piano are historical keyboard specialists Neal Peres Da Costa (University of Sydney) and David McGuinness (Concerto Caledonia).

Curious Caledonians offers a rare insight into domestic and public music-making in Australia since 1788, honouring the extraordinary contributions of Scottish culture to Australian society and exploring Scottish music’s unique ability to reinvent itself in new surroundings. Part classical, part folk, part Scottish, part Australian, this album captures the musical – and emotional – landscape of the early Australian settlement.

TRACKLISTING
1. Miss Susanna Baird’s Reel / Miss Johnston’s Reel
2. Black Mary
3. The Emigrant Highlander’s Wife *
4. The Blue Bell of Scotland
5. Morag
6. Laddie Oh Leave Me *
7. Hit Her on the Bum
8. The Favorite Scotch Rondo *
9. The Hen’s March / Sir George Murray’s Favorite / The Duke of Wellington
10. The Marquis of Huntly’s Welcome Home / [No] 6 Dance
11. Ye Banks and Braes *
12. Jenny Dang the Weaver
13. The Banks of Clyde *
14. Lord Moira’s Welcome / Miss Jeann Stewart of Bohally’s Reel
15. The Horse-man’s Port
16. Queen of France’s Lamentation *
17. Blackbird Waltz
18. La Fenella
19. Don Alphonso

Evergreen Ensemble
Shane Lestideau violin
Ben Dollman violin & viola
Allegra Giagu mezzo-soprano *
Claire Patti soprano & Celtic harp

Guest Artists
Aaron McGregor violin
Daniel Yeadon cello
Neal Peres Da Costa 19th-century square piano
David McGuinness 19th-century square piano & harpsichord

Research: Brianna Robertson-Kirkland

1CD + Digital album | Available 4 October 2019 | ABC 481 8774

Here is a link to the album playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mkVPeV0hxkV4Bh0EmZWQK5Rz7obURGogg

Annual leave!

Part of the reason why I worked so hard for most of the summer was that I had a huge, 16 day trip to Asia planned. My husband and I set out on a quest to visit all the ‘Eastern’ Disney parks: Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. “Why?” I hear you ask? One of the first coherent memories I have from my childhood is watching a film of a family fly together in a hot air balloon over Disney World in Florida. It was a commercial at the end of a Disney movie and I vividly remember watching it while sitting on my Gran’s blue recliner chair. She was cleaning the living room and I asked how many Disney parks there were. I can’t recall if she told me the exact number, but I do remember her telling me a story about visiting Disneyland soon after it opened. During this conversation, I told her I would visit all the Disney parks one day and I can now say that dream has come true.

It was a more extensive and expensive trip than what it might have been in the early 90s. It may seem childish or silly to some, but hearing about the early days of Disneyland from my Grandparents, listening to stories about my parents working in the California park as teenagers, visiting Californian and Paris Disney parks as a child and falling in love with the complete immersive experience gave me and continues to fuel my fascination. Each park has its similarities: most are set out in a similar structure, all have parades, high-quality song and dance shows, and of course, rides. But, each one also has several unique features, some suited to the country and culture and others exploring new innovations in ride tech or creative immersion. My husband and I often say we are happy enough to walk the parks all day long without going on a single ride, and this is simply because the parks offer so much more. So here are a few highlights from this trip.

Shanghai

It is the newest park out of the 3, and even though it is only a few years old, it is already growing and expanding to include new lands and rides. The ride tech for Tron and Pirates of the Caribbean is out of this world and the level of ‘imagineering’ (a Disney-coined term) really shows what technology can do in terms of story-telling and creating a fully immersive atmosphere. The layout of the park is relatively unique and while I appreciate the aim is to facilitate the maximum number of guests, I found it difficult to navigate at times. I missed the old, familiar layout that all the other parks have and I couldn’t quite get my head around the transition from Mickey Avenue, ‘the hub’ and the four lands. Some of the magic is missing from the cast members as well, who aren’t quite as peppy and upbeat as a Disney veteran might expect. These are minor complaints, and I did find the park really beautiful. When we visited, it was easy to ride most rides in a day as crowd levels were low. We benefitted from ‘Magic Hours’ – a luxury bestowed on guests who stay in a Disney hotel, which means we could enter the park 1 hour earlier than those who had only purchased park tickets.

Hong Kong

We stayed ‘off property’ at Hong Kong, partly because I knew the park wasn’t as popular, so we wouldn’t be battling potentially high crowd levels. We also wanted to explore a bit more of Hong Kong itself. We stayed in a lovely resort called Noah’s Ark, which really wasn’t what we expected. It is genuinely an Ark built on the Park Island coast, complete with its own education area, which focusses on world history and the environment. There is also a lot of life-size animal models replicating the Biblical story. Inside the rooms all had a balcony view and it was wonderful to eat breakfast overlooking the busy sea.

The park is the most similar to the ‘Western’ Disney parks in terms of layout and rides, which isn’t really a problem considering the other two are very different, but it is by far the quietest and unfortunately the weakest in terms of its performance. Half of the restaurants were closed when we visited and the park opens very late in the day (1030am-8pm). There are no fireworks to close the night, though the Electrical Light Parade was brilliant. The meal-deal isn’t worth the money, particularly with so many restaurant closures. The cap of 130 HKD for meals is too restrictive (basically, unless you want to eat a burger and fries, only a couple vegetarian dishes are available) and there are only a few snack choices included in the deal. We had our 2nd day of meals refunded once we realised all of the imposed restrictions. However, the park was very quiet and we easily did everything in a day. It was nice being able to walk around a Disney park with almost no crowd or queues! Mystic Manor is unique to the park and is definitely a highlight. It is worth the trip just for this ride alone (but maybe pair up the Disney park with other sightseeing).

 

Tokyo

We spent a lot of time exploring Japan before going to the Disney park. It was nice to have a break and see different cities for a while. I would definitely recommend the Japanese Rail pass, which gives unlimited travel on most train lines all over the country. We even got to ride the bullet train to Kyoto with the pass. The country is very clean and most hotels provide a whole host of pampering products such as a hairbrush, toothbrush, razor, shower cap, as well as washing essentials.

Disney has 2 gates: Disneyland and Disney Sea and both are extremely popular with huge crowds. Though we stayed in a Disney partner hotel, we didn’t have Magic Hours so we struggled to ride all the rides and catch all the shows in the 3.5 days we were there. It’s just about possible to do Disneyland in 2 days, but Disney Sea needs 2-3 days at least, especially if you plan to ride the E-ticket attractions. ‘Soarin’ was never below a 160-minute wait the whole time we were there and many of the other big rides were over 100 minutes. We decided to focus on shows and forget most of the rides. Big Band Beats was a song and dance jazz show featuring numbers from the 1920s-1940s. With a live jazz band, singers, dancers and all the favourite Disney characters, it was just wonderful from beginning to end. The Hallowe’en show Festival of Mystique was a simple concept but impeccably executed.

We watched it twice and both times I was drawn in to the point I felt a little scared by the action! Fantasmic is the evening show, which is followed by the fireworks and while those who have been to Florida and California may recognise the overall premise, it has some unique elements.

It is much easier to ride most rides in the late afternoon in Disneyland, particularly between 4pm and 6pm, when families are heading off and before the night time crowd arrives. We managed to see the park at the beginning of the Hallowe’en season, so the Haunted Mansion had a Nightmare Before Christmas holiday overlay, which was amazing. Most rides are similar if not the same to those in Western parks, but Pooh’s Honey Hunt was surprisingly unique! The Hallowe’en parade was spooky in all the right ways and the Electrical Light Parade was dazzling. I really liked that everyone was encouraged to sit down and watch the performances, so I didn’t struggle (as I often do) to see the performances.

I realise this is a bit of a deviation from my typical posts, but it is important to take time away. I certainly don’t wish to glorify overwork and it is important to remember that no matter what the time off is – a lifelong dream holiday, a spontaneous trip, a city break or just time to read in the garden – allows for a mind reset. I cannot say this trip was quiet or relaxing and I didn’t avoid work completely, but it did give me time to focus on something else; to reflect, to regroup and to reset, which are all very important.

Facing fears leads to an academic win!

On the 1st April of this year, I posted the following to the ‘Women in Academia Support Network’:

Hello everyone*. I hope you don’t mind me sharing a rather long post, but I want to make this year, ‘the year I face my academic fears!’ I passed my PhD with very minor corrections in 2016 (I got 2 weeks for the corrections) and I had always planned to turn it into a monograph. The perfect book series was launched right at that time and I got in touch with the editors and asked if they would be interested in a monograph based on my PhD thesis. After getting the ok, I created a proposal, re-shaped a couple of the chapters, acted on feedback given from colleagues and sent it in. I was so happy to get a positive response from the commissioning editor who sent it out to readers.

I didn’t get a response for almost a year. After a few chasing emails, I finally heard back in October 2017 that my proposal had been rejected. The commissioning editor’s email was apologetic and tried to provide constructive criticism, even suggesting a way forward. The initial read of the email confused me, as it seemed she was trying to apologise for something other than only being able to provide one reader’s report…

Well, as soon as I opened the single reader’s report, I was met with such nasty, negative comments it still makes me sick. This came as such a shock. Up till this point, comments had been positive and I falsely thought things were moving in the right direction. Even since this experience, I have had so many people who have read my thesis ask when the monograph will appear and I have no answer. Clearly, there are people out there who want to see more of my work and I continue to question ‘why?’

Since 2017, this review made me hide from my thesis. I put it away in a digital box and seriously questioned my ability to research and write. I still get really nervous writing and don’t think my work is good enough. Up until this review, I felt productive and didn’t struggle to articulate my thoughts. Now, every piece I write is an up hill battle.

Not this year! This year, I plan to turn my thesis into a monograph. This year, I will take a deep breath, get my head down and shape it into something I am proud of. This year, I will submit a proposal elsewhere and if it gets rejected, I will act on the comments and send it out again. This year, I will grow from the negative experience of 2017 and turn a resounding ‘NO!’ into a ‘Yes!’

I hope you don’t mind me sharing this experience, and I know many of you have had negative rejections as well. I hope others can learn from my experience and are not faced with the complete shock I experienced. I know it has made me better at research and writing in the long-run, but I didn’t need to drown to learn how to swim!

*Edit to remove ‘ladies’ as a recent request was made to use a more inclusive term.*

I received so many kind and encouraging comments on this post that it inspired to commit! I even received a PM from an editor who encouraged me to send her a proposal for the series she edits, which I did.

This post didn’t come out of no where. Turning my thesis into a monograph had plagued my mind since the viva and the sickness only got worse after the first rejection. Despite thinking about it non-stop I avoided finding the time to write a new proposal.

At the 2019 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference I visited one of the ‘Doctor is in’ volunteers and I spoke to a wonderfully supportive academic, who sympathised with my struggles and offered to turn the negative comments from the reviewer into kinder action points so I could more effectively work on the new proposal. I am so grateful to her for taking the time to do this and for telling me the proposal only need a little bit more work and certainly wasn’t as bad as the reviewer made it seem.

In the end, I didn’t use the old proposal as a template, rather I started with a new rewrite of the monograph introduction and from there I realised the new direction the book had to take. I worked on the rewrite while doing the Wendy Belcher task, which I posted about on here and got some feedback from my writing group colleagues on the chapter abstract. In truth, this chapter took about 3-4 months of work and I rewrote the opening several times, but what came out in the end really worked.

My writing group also gave me support with the proposal, with one very kind member sending me a copy of their successful book proposal. This was another month of work and thereafter I sent it to 5 wonderful colleagues who gave me comments on how to make the proposal and chapter even stronger.

And I can now say that I successfully have a contract with Routledge for my first academic monograph. This process was so different from my last experience. It was quick. The decision was clear and I felt supported by the series editors the whole time.

In respect of privacy, I have not included the names of those who helped me along the way but the intension of this post is to demonstrate the number of kind people who offered their free advice and time to help me throughout this journey and I am so very grateful to each and every one of them!

It took me 6 months from articulating my goal on #wiasn to actually achieving it and I am proud to go into academic year 2019-2020 with a contract under my belt. Fears are real and facing them is hard. But, with a little help from our friends it both possible and worth it!

How I spent my summer: part 10 – the road goes ever on and on…

And so we have reached the end. The house is complete and we have fully moved in. If anyone following the series hasn’t guessed it yet, I wrote this series after the fact. I am mad, but not mad enough to redecorate and renovator whole rooms in a day!

The pain of not being able to see and speak to Gran and Grandpa everyday is not gone and it probably never will be. I miss them each and every moment of every day. I miss our conversations, our spats, our debates. I miss not being able to run to them when I needed advice and realising that when I pull up in the car at the house I won’t be walking into cups of tea and Murder She Wrote (unless I take the notion).

But, working on the house has helped me to turn all of those painful reminders into happy memories and I am comforted that this is what they would have wanted me to do.

Now this blog will probably resume normal service and return to my research ideas or musings on academia. For those following along, thank you for reading!

Below I have included video of our house tour.

How I spent my summer: part 9 – bruises

I am the type of person who just wants to do things on my own. I often feel it is faster if I do it alone than seek help though sometimes I do have to accept help is needed. When it came to moving out of the flat and into the house we had the luxury of doing it in stages. There was no official move-in date other than the one in my head, which gave us the time to slowly move over certain items.

While my husband was at work I said I would move over the kitchen and my clothes from the bedroom. The kitchen wasn’t that tough to move. I basically loaded up a 10l plastic box 5 times and drove back and forth, while cleaning the old kitchen and putting things away in the new. This took me a day to do and I was so happy to see it all come together on both sides. I knew that the key to selling the flat was clean, clutter free counters, something I wasn’t convinced we would achieve had we been living there.

The next day was clothes moving day. We had already built new IKEA wardrobes in the new bedroom but had decided to take the drawers, shelves, and rails from the old to the new. Ideally we would have taken the whole wardrobe but the new room was a bit shorter than the room at the flat. After a bit of fiddling to disassemble the draws from the wardrobe and many charity and bin bags later I was ready to load up the car. I wouldn’t say the drawers were heavy but they were extremely awkward to carry especially when I had to hobble up a set of stairs. During one of the trips a very nice person passing by offered to help me with one of the drawers into the car. Clearly my struggle up the stairs was obvious! 3 trips later and the new wardrobe, complete with clothes was reassembled.

But I was hurt! My back ached from carrying items that were clearly too heavy for me and my legs were covered in deep hideous bruises.

I had done the task but suffered the consequences. And I didn’t really learn my lesson.

A couple of days later, Gordon and our friend Michael moved the much larger items in the flat to the house. Now the house was complete and all that was left to move was our cat and ourselves.

Now that the flat was mostly empty, waiting to be dressed for sale, it needed to be cleaned. I had thought about hiring a deep clean specialist to make it really sparkle but once again I had got ahead of myself and had a deadline to meet. The Estate Agent was coming on Monday, which gave me the weekend to make the place look presentable.

I scrubbed and clean every inch of the flat for two days straight, making it look as presentable as possible. Now the place lacks personality, but hopefully is the right kind of blank canvas to help potential buyers imagine it as a future home. Time will only tell…

Below is a video tour of all the rooms in the flat. My husband and I have many happy memories of our first home together. It was this place that we went back to after our wedding, honeymoon, and Disney trips. It saw me get my Masters and PhD. It saw Gordon move careers, become an Assistant Manager and Manager. It will be a place we won’t forget in a hurry but it was always somewhere to move on from. So here we are… Moving on.

How I spent my summer: part 8 – dishonesty and trust

In this saga, no doubt most of you will think me a complete fool and honestly at the moment that is how I feel. We had only a few things left to complete in the house but one of the major jobs was the flooring in the living room. I wanted to match it with the flooring in the hall but I had no idea where the original flooring came from or who laid it. I raided the filing cabinet trying to find old receipts to no avail. In the end, I thought the best way forward was to hire a flooring expert from MyBuilder to help us find the perfect match. Unfortunately, at the time we were doing this it was the Glasgow fair and offers were few a far between. One person did respond and I thought ‘great!’.

During the initially visit, Gordon and I were a little confused by his method of measuring but since we know very little we assumed he had a good grasp of what he was doing. However, when the quote came through there was a glaring math error! A quick call and all was explained away. I can appreciate everyone having an off day but I should have been a little more critical. We also corresponded over flooring I had found online that seemed to be a match. The person agreed and I immediately purchased the correct amount with some extra just in case!

The floorer came the same day as Paul who was installing our bannister. Though the floorer’s quote had said the price included all underlay and preparation of the floor, I was charged an additional price for the plywood and he didn’t bring any underlay. This urked me somewhat but trying to avoid an argument I just went with it. Afterall, he had turned up on time ready and willing to do the work and by that night we would have our completed living room. Or so I thought…

Though the floorer promised it would be a 1 day job, progress seemed to be slow. By 3pm the floorer asked if I wanted beading to disguise the join between the floor and the skirting. I agreed but this too incurred an additional cost. I asked him to get it and I would pay him the following day if he let me know. He then said he would go now to get it and would finish the floor and install the beading the next day. Now, Paul was going to be in the house the following day for a short time as per our arrangement but I had to be at work. Feeling slightly mift that the floorer was now taking an extra day, but also wanting the job done asap I reorganised a few things to make sure he could get into the house and asked him to lock up after he was finished. He asked if we could settle up and here was my big mistake! I agreed!!! I didn’t pay him for the beading, but I did pay for the ply and his time. I would never normally do this but the month had been a stressful mess and I really just wanted the house to be finished. Off he went and I inspected his work. Some of the ply had been laid but only 4-5 strips of flooring had gone down. I voiced my concern to Paul who agreed that progress was slow. (I should say that Paul had a very expressive face but he was polite about this floorer and tried to put my mind at ease while looking a little concerned).

A flutter went through my mind that night that maybe the floorer wouldn’t come back but the next morning my concerns disappeared when I received a text telling me the price of the beading. It seemed quite high but at least he had it. His van appeared shortly after. I let him in, told him how to lock up and asked him what time he would be finished. ‘4pm’ he said. The previous day he told me it would only take another half day now it was two whole days! I took a breath and just stayed quiet praying the work would be complete that night. I left him to his work as I drove to mine.

But, something didn’t seem right and I quickly changed my plans deciding to work from home. It was a good thing I did as well. At 1130am Paul gave me a call asking me to come and look at the progress of the banister. This was weird. He didn’t say he was finished, just to check progress and he didn’t seem like the type of man who lacked confidence in his ability. Arriving at the house just 10-minutes later, Paul was working away but the floorer and his tools were gone. There was no beading to be seen either. He had apparently went to go get the beading which confused me. Then I got a text with a different story (since the text was personal I won’t relay what it said here, but it was something I couldn’t really argue with if the story was true). The text suggested I ask Paul to finish the work and my money would be repaid.

Well, Paul agreed but pointed out several issues in the laying of the ply and the flooring (of which very little had gone down!). Red putty stained some of the planks, others had been cut incorrectly. There were massive gaps, while the ply had been laid too close to the skirtings. Blocks had been glued down which would have cracked the floor had it been left. The result was everything had to come up and be relaid. What a nightmare!

The next day, I text the floorer asking about when the money would be returned to me. Well, now he wanted to calculate how much he owed back since ‘laying the ply is half the flooring’. I was shocked! This person had caused so much damage I had to buy another box of flooring (which isn’t cheap) and pay another person to correct the errors and now he wanted half!!!

I have issued him a formal later stating the many issues and why I would like the money for his time returned to me within 14 days. I did say I would pay the ply so long as he issued me the receipt. No receipt has appeared and a few days after sending the email I received a very odd message saying he wanted to see photos of the ply being taken up before giving the money back. This confused and still confuses me as the job wasn’t completed in the first place so whether the ply was taken up or not is none of his concern. I am still waiting for the receipts and the money back.

And to add insult to injury, his MyBuilder page which did have positive reviews is now filled with negative reviews including one that is very similar to my experience! If anyone has any advice for how to move forward with this situation I would be very appreciative, but in the meantime I will be seeking advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Paul came in a few days later, and completely redid the work that had been done, laid the floor and beading in one day. He did a fantastic job on both the banister and flooring and I would recommend him to all for his professionalism! Here is his website: https://www.pandjjoiners.co.uk

Here is a picture of the amount of work completed by the previous floorer after 1 1/2 days. I have plenty more oft he damage but won’t post those online at the moment.

Hint of the new banister featuring Mr Arthur

I will add pictures of the completed flooring in the next post.

All in all, I feel very silly but hopeful that this matter will be resolved. For those of you who are inexperienced with hiring workman or who are trying to do this type of renovation in between work and a busy life style, please remember to be cautious. This was the mistake I made and it could be a very expensive one!

How I spent my summer: part 7 – all a bit of a blur!

The next portion of redecorating is a bit of a blur as we had a couple of different workman in at once. The living room, hall, stairs and top hall were too large a space for my husband and I to paint ourselves in the time frame set for the move. Also, we wanted a large wall mural to feature on the main living room wall and there was no way we could make a good job of it ourselves.

A couple of years ago we had a painter-decorator come to repaint the whole flat. He had done a fantastic job so we contacted him about painting the house. A price was agreed and we couldn’t wait for him to come and transform the place.

The next step was to move Gran and Grandpa’s chairs out. These chairs reminded me of them so much it was painful to have to part with them. But keeping them as our own seemed wrong too. It felt like I was just keeping them as museum items. I thought about selling them, but that didn’t sit well with me. After some amount of procrastination I offered to donate them to the care home my Gran had been at when she passed away. They gratefully accepted and I am told are already frequently used by the residents. My only request was that the chairs be placed together, which they have been.

At the same time we had a couple of different joiners come to price up the downstairs bannister. The original had been damaged by putting a rail onto the newal. As Gran and Grandpa had been using it to climb the bottom stair, most of the bannister slats had separated from the newal. This would have been quite expensive to repair. It was also a very 1960s design and had been painted so many times the thought of stripping it back was too terrifying to comprehend. So we decided to rip it our a put a new one in its place. One joiner came and seemed to be keen to do a good job but he only got back in touch with a quote over two weeks later after which we had employed someone else. I had made it clear we had a strict time frame to keep to and though he had promised to send us the quote just two days after coming to price the job all I received was excuses for why it didn’t appear. In any case, the price he eventually gave was double the price we had the work done for. The second guy who came out my husband assures me I would not have wanted to do the job. I wasn’t around when he arrived to price it up but I took my husband at his word. Third time lucky, we had a wonderful joiner called Paul who not only priced up the job in the wood I thought we wanted (oak) but also suggested Hemlock as an alternative. This wood has a honey colour similar to oak but much warmer. It is also half the price. I will write a separate post about the bannister later in the series.

With Paul booked in to do the job (who sent me the quote within the hour BTW!) we left the painter-decorator to finish his work. He did a really stellar job all round although I cannot really speak for his timekeeping. It was very frustrating to work with someone who didn’t seem capable of turning up at the time promised especially when, just a couple of year’s ago, I had praised him for his punctuality. None-the-less I cannot really fault his work.

Painting complete, Gordon and I set to work putting up another decal on the stair. A blowing tree that invited our visitors upstairs. I loved the idea that this piece was whimsical without appearing childish.

Here is the decal as the old bannister is being removed:

Our feature wall:

So, how did we achieve this look:

Decal: BDECOLL Nursery Wall Stickers,Cherry… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073LQ8XPQ?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Wall mural: Photo wallpaper Beautiful Rainforest… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078XKDDJ3?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Valspur Gold 700 paint in Green Willow (BnQ don’t list this in their website but it can be mixed in store)

While gloss

White ceiling paint

Skilled painter decorator!

How I spent my summer: part 6 – turning a stylish 90s friendly bathroom into a Scandy-style 30s friendly haven

Though my Grandparents were in their upper years by the time they bought this house accepting that a walk in shower, shower seat and stair were necessary needs for persons of their years, they were determined to maintain a modern decor. They had just completely redone the bathroom a few years ago. The bath was removed and brand new wet wall panels, heater, sink, toilet and shower all went in giving the space a light grey marbled effect. There really wasn’t anything wrong with the bathroom except the multiple rails and seats which made it resemble a stylish bathroom in a caring facility rather than a home. Since it is very hard to disguise holes once they are cut into wet walls, I knew the panelling would all have to be replaced anyway, so this was an opportunity to do something we really wanted.

My husband and I had fallen in love with a wet room and rain shower during a visit to Rotter dam in 2015 and we had plans to convert the bathroom to a wet room in whatever house we got next. We did enquire about a wet room convertion but at £5000 for the floor remodelling alone it was just too far our of our price range at this stage. Instead, we settled for the rain shower and new panelling. I have to day with the walk-in shower it isn’t too far removed from a wet room anyway.

Now this was just too big a job to do ourselves so I posted an ad on My Builder and got a wonderful plumber/bathroom installer called Sean O’Brien. He really did a fabulous job and I couldn’t recommend him highly enough. Here is his website if you are in need: http://obwplumbingservices.co.uk

The panels are wood effect, which tie in with our overall theme throughout the house and the rain shower is exactly what we were looking for. Sean also took care of a minor plumbing hiccup where the bathroom had not been plumbed into the mains supply but instead was still plumbed into the old water tank. I was sure this was some Grandpa had asked to be changed over when the bathroom was originally done, but alas it never was. At least the job wasn’t too tricky to take care of and didn’t affect the time frame for the work overall.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take before shots but here it is after the work was carried out:

In the picture below the woof effect can just be made out. It is quite subtle.

How I spent my summer: part 5 – The Study

In every house Gran and Grandpa owned since I was 4 they have always had a room for me. Oddly, none of these rooms had a bed as I often shared Gran’s double bed in her room whenever I stayed over. But, ‘my room’ normally had my desk, an assortment of arts and craft supplies, toys, games and when I became old enough, my piano. In this house, my room had become a bit of a dumping ground for unpacked boxes but there was always plenty of room for me to sit and play the piano or my trumpet. This was the one room I felt completely at liberty to decorate as I wanted. It had always been mine, it now just needed some more of… well me in it!

In the flat, I spent the entirity of my PhD working on tables in the living room where my books often lay about our everyday living space. During special occasions I tried to tidy things away but if I happened to be in the middle of writing a chapter that was quite difficult. In the end, the flat was always a tip and work seemed to be waiting for me where ever I went. As soon as I got my permenant job, the mountains of paperwork that had accumulated over 4 years of study were packed away but this in itself was challenging since I have always had plans to turn my PhD into a monograph. Without the paperwork, I couldn’t quite remember certain paths of research nor did I have the ability to check up on certain areas. In essence, it helped my procrastination. But, at least I had a split between home and work life.

Over the past two years I have really struggled with these two issues. Wanting to work but also wanting to relax. How do I work at home and be able to walk away? My husband and I had made a decision to sell our flat and buy something larger where I could have my own office space. So when it came to inheriting this house, it felt appropriate that my room remain mine, only now it would be my work space. A place I could go to think, research and write while still keeping the rest of the house as a home.

The skirtings in the room weren’t exactly skirtings. They were more like white boards put down after wooden floors had gone down. This had been done by the previous owners and I think Grandpa had just left the room as it had been. Job number 1 was to find a joiner who would replace the skirtings and facings. In doing so, it would lift the look of the room overall.

I have often used MyBuilder.com to find different workman. I have had some amount of success but I would also add a word of caution. Though profiles may have positive reviews, these can be ‘created’ by simply asking friends or family to provide such reviews. The joiner who came to do the skirtings did an alright job, but he did make a mess of the plasterwork around the door and he didn’t exactly work cleanly. These things we were able to fix quickly, but it was slightly irritating.

Beyond that, I had grand plans for the room. I had visions of turning it into a Victorian Library, an 18th-century masculine office, a gothic masterpiece —all plans that were a little too grand for this particular space. I did want to turn the over-the-stairs cupboard into a reading nook. This would give me a perfect place to sit and read while also shelving off some of the space for books. The wardrobe was also shelved off and the book cases from the living room in the flat were added giving me maximum storage.

I fell in love with black wallpaper featuring copper trees. It give the room a rich, vintage look without overpowering the space and the colour complimented my Grandparents bureau which would now become my desk.

I have filled the room with reminders of my Grandparents including images and ornaments that I couldn’t bare to hide away but didn’t want to keep in the main living space.

I haven’t quite had the chance to sit and work in the study yet, but I am hopeful that it will be a place of fruitful creativity.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a before shot but here it is after papering:

So how did I achieve this look?

Need wooden facings, skirtings and shelves ordered and fitted by a local joiner.

Graham & Brown Vinyl Wallpaper: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01D53ZL9S?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Wallpaper paste: https://www.diy.com/departments/diall-paste-the-wall-ready-to-use-wallpaper-adhesive-2-5kg/212584_BQ.prd?utm_source=google_cpc&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=PX_GSC_Tools_And_Hardware_+_Best_Sellers&ppc_type=shopping&ds_kids=92700030831733794&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7pTH7e7R3AIVhrHtCh068wu5EAQYAiABEgJNZvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLHR_qTv0dwCFcxk0wodr7cLDQ

White gloss.

White emulation (I found this in the wardrobe in this room).

Harris brushes

Painting table

How I spent my summer: part 4 – The master bedroom

The master bedroom had been my Gran’s room (yes, my Grandparents slept in separate rooms!). Now my Gran really didn’t like this room at all. She despised the double wardrobe, particularly after my Grandpa had broken one of the mirrors and she really hated the printed swirls that surrounded the walls. I had naively thought this was just patterned paper Grandpa had painted over in peach to disguise the blue and gold swirls, but no. Clearly, the previous owners had a flair for the decoration I remember featuring in the popular early 2000s TV show Changing Rooms which seemed to boil down any room make over to mdf and wall stamps. These particular wall stamps were difficult to eradicate even after Grandpa repainted the walls a couple of times! When they were younger my Grandparents would have quickly solved their decorating woes with a much more imaginative solution but by his 80s Grandpa just couldn’t paper and paint the way he once had. Gran, who previously had taken such pride in selecting the best carpets, furniture and linens was mainly house bound and she didn’t really like Grandpa’s decorating taste either. Though she often complained she also didn’t really want to be cast out of her room for any length of time. So, hating the decor became the norm.

When it came to me decorating the bedroom I had some key goals. The wardrobe and the swirls had to go! Since the swirls were stamped to the plaster work I thought the easiest solution was to pop up some lining paper. Purchasing BnQs thickest should have done the trick but no. These stubborn swirls poked through! So I took an electric sander to the wall! Perhaps a little drastic but I was already frustrated that my original solution had not worked.

My first attempt at wallpapering went relatively smoothly, though I can now appreciate the difference between paste the paper and paste the wall. Paste the paper is a messy pain, particularly for someone who is vertically challenged. It took me one whole day to paper and paint one wall, but taking my time to make sure the walls were carefully prepared gave me a much neater result.

Our bedroom in the flat had been magnolia with purple touches but we had also started to incorporate a woodland deer theme. Last winter we fell in love with bedside lamps that had deer faces as well as a duvet and pillow set with a wintery deer scene. For this new room, I had seen a decal wall portrait on ebay that featured a winter woodland with deer and thought it would be nice to tie in all of deer items to the overall decor. The ebay image had the deer on a grey background, but we preferred to maintain the rich, dark purple. Of course this colour would be too heavy for the whole room so it has been made into a feature wall with the remaining 3 walls painted ivory.

Painting the purple was quite hard work particular since the paint seemed to soak into the lining paper. I was also trying to paint on one of the hottest days of the summer! After breaking down the wardrobe we discovered the colour of the room before Grandpa’s peach and before the blue and gold. It had been bright sunflower yellow! Now, I can forgive Grandpa for painting round the wardrobe. After all, it would not have been good for an 80+ man to move a double wardrobe even with help. Clearly however, the previous or indeed the previous previous owners had just left the wardrobe in place and painted round hoping no one would notice. It worked! After several coats of ivory, the yellow was gone and the room was unified in one clear aesthetic.

With swirls gone, wardrobes gone and the peach gone, I could see the beauty of the space. It was no longer a dull, thrown together room but had flow and purpose. My husband and I had a lot fun putting up the decal, though I was a little disappointed that the stickers didn’t stay put. Later we had to stick down the seams with glue to make sure it stayed in place.

Before:

After:

So how did we achieve this look? Here are the products:

Lining paper x4 rolls: https://www.diy.com/departments/erfurt-smooth-1700-grade-lining-paper-l-10m-w-56-cm/65941_BQ.prd

Valspar gold 700 in winter Berry (this is from BnQ but it is a mix in store product and does not appear online)

Ivory: https://www.diy.com/departments/colours-standard-ivory-matt-emulsion-paint-2-5l/311959_BQ.prd

White gloss for the skirtings, which Grandpa already had in a cupboard.

Deer decal: https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-of-7-Large-Birch-Tree-Wall-Stickers-Two-Lovely-Deers-in-Forest-with-flying-/282928542064?_mwBanner=1&_rdt=1

The same roller as before found in my previous post.

Harris paint brushes

Electric sander

PVA wall glue