When not to DIY

It is half term week and I have been off work. We decided to redecorate one of the kids bedrooms. Those of you who know me will be aware we have been trying to move home for some time - I am afraid Brown's recession has caught us out and frankly the house begins to look tired if you do not keep up the process of updating.

Anyway, we decided to redecorate and it has been a nightmare.

Firstly we had to strip woodchip wallpaper. Whoever invented woodchip wallpaper was absolutely evil. It is a slow and painful experience and I now have sympathy with the potential purchaser of our house who commented about the woodchip. It has taken days. But the worst problem was that haviong removed the woodchip from one wall we discovered the plaster had blown away from the wall and we had to take it down.

My courageous, and creative, wife replastered - the first plastering she had tried. Why did't I do it? Well, I have to be honest and say I just do not have the patience. of course, the real problem is that this delayed the redecorating for some days.

In the meantime I have managed to repaper the rest of the room.

My other job was to remove a sink in the bedroom. I managed this OK, once I had found out where the hot water tap was to turn off the supply. I used these caps you get from B&Q which you fit over the end of the pipe. For two days this was fine and then today, whilst having lunch. I heard running water and discovered that the caps had burst and mains water was pumping over the bedroom and through the floor into the kitchen below - complete catastrophe. We got our friendly plumber put who sucked his teeth and was bemused by my plumbing skills. Now we are into drying out the carpets etc.

Time for a break from the decorating.