One day at a time...

Party preparations started in earnest today. Well, to be honest, today's preparations were really all about cleaning up in readiness for Nikki's brother arriving tomorrow. I'm knackered now. Hope he appreciates it ;o)

When we moved in, I bagsied a corner of the dining room to store all the tools I knew I'd be using during the extensive renovations. Most of them are still in their plastic crates, so today was a day for restacking them where the boiler used to be to free up some space in the dining room for the party cheeseboard.

When I wasn't cleaning, or scrubbing, or hoovering, or mopping, or carrying (or drinking tea), or stacking things in the attic room (I'm sure that ceiling's going to give way eventually), or shaving off the bottom of the spare room door to allow for the new carpet, I was assembling furniture. The missing piece of our spare room suite - the 4+2 chest of drawers - arrived as promised this afternoon. The final piece in the jigsaw of the room that Paul will be staying in for the next week.

In my long (30 year+) experience of flat-pack furniture, I have to say this is the best I have ever seen. Solid wood, very high manufacturing quality, excellent design and assembly is a doddle. It's the Pickwick range from Julian Bowen.

We chose two small bedside tables (which fit snugly either side of this queen-sized bed - more by luck than judgement it has to be said); the aforementioned chest; and a short wardrobe. Normally flat-pack wardrobes are the devil's work and nigh-on impossible to put together without one door ending up higher than the other. In this case everything went together beautifully, and the honey pine finish complements the rooms colours perfectly.

This room is only 10x8, with a corner missing where the stair well is, so finding furniture to fit without the room feeling like a broom cupboard was a challenge - one that Nikki rose to brilliantly as always. Since Julian Bowen don't sell to the public, we bought from Discount Furniture Direct. Admittedly their service was not without problems, but the main thing is that as soon as they discovered the chest of drawers had gone walkabout from their warehouse, they ordered a replacement right away and despatched it as soon as it arrived. Things can always go wrong - it's how the problems are handled that counts in the end, and they were polite, helpful and efficient. I wouldn't have any qualms about ordering from them again.