More then usually chaotic

Just a short report from the front this weekend I'm afraid as the scene here in Silverwood is more than usually chaotic. We turned up Friday wondering if the 'hotel' was still able to receive guests as the floor appeared to be covered in stuff. Our bedroom door was part blocked by one huge doll's house and a smaller one was on the bed. Bed ends and frames, a shower panel and a bath panel obstructed the landing and the kitchen floor was knee deep (OK slight exaggeration) in laundry. Tommo the builder was hard at it rebuilding little R's room, with a fitted bed and drawers, new laminate floor and the wardrobe moved up off the floor onto a plinth he'd created over an annoying bit of 45 degree sloping wall let into the room to allow for stairs beneath.

On top of that the Silverwoods have now located a plumber (the last one took a look at the job and left saying "just need to ask me mate something - I'll be back in ten minutes" and was never seen again) to install the big new stove and he needed access to the airing cupboard ("hot press" in Irish) which is also in our room. To cap it all Mrs S decided to reclaim the 'back room'. It's a downstairs extension built originally to be a fine dining room overlooking the deck but never really used as such and lately a bit of a 'store' room for exercise bikes and other bikes, spare furniture, then the local dogs' night-time sleeping accommodation and the place where the rabbits lived in their hutch. Inevitably, as the clothes dryer is also in there, there are generally some bits of part-processed laundry hanging about too.

But Not Any More! The rabbits have long since been moved outdoors. Local dogs now sleep in a big crate. Now Mrs S got up early and went into fierce wrangling mode, gathering her small army of conscripts around her (Mr S, Mum, J-M and Em-J). Dad escaped to little R's room on the grounds that there was painting to do. In no time there was even more chaos as everything was dragged out to be sorted, decision made on it as to correct destination and keep-or-dump and the process of pushing the laundry through the system went into full swing. Clothes were sorted and folded and piled, children dispatched with stacks and instructions to put them away PROPERLY. There was no time to sit around updating computer blogs and for a while nowhere to sit anyway.

Now, though, it's Sunday morning and the house is transformed. For the most part the laundry is done. The back room is transformed back into a dining room. Table and chairs are now in there, various chest-of-drawers and dressers swapped around and two big easy chairs are now at the end of the suddenly huge kitchen. The huge stove is off its pallet and standing on its legs and the process of breaking through the chimney wall from the back has begun (all be it parked till Monday when the boys decided the drill they had was not really up to the job). Breathe.

Deefs