Lend an Ear Anyone ?

Ive been a bit quiet, this and last week can only be described (politely) as Interesting. Here's a little "Previously in the House Of Sparkly Treasures" to bring you up to speed.

I live in an old Victorian house that dates approx 110 years old. It has lovely high ceilings and big rooms and big windows. Unfortunately most of the original fixtures have been removed and we have a downstairs bathroom, but its not the end of the world. We've already spent a lot of money on doing the house up over the years, as you can appreciate when something is as old as my house it can take more than a lick of paint to fix it up.

Well I decided that now we have an Ikea just down the road that it was the livingrooms turn to have a bit of a face lift. I knew about the bad plaster and slightly damp patch in the corner of the room but had worked that into the equation and arranged for a plaster to come and give me a quote. After 2 plasterers didn't even bother turning up (whats that all about) a local builder finally arrived. Long story short after 4 different builders have given me their professional opinion and it looks like its not just a case of doing a little re plastering oh no, it couldn't be that easy.

The fact the plaster has blown is because we have damp, but not just a little bit of damp, Ive got full on water ingress coming in just above the damp course. Because of the age of the house, and the fact that it was around in the WW2 bombings, it basically makes the slate damp course pointless. This has in turn rotted most of the floor joists (always wondered why the floor bounced, now I know). To remedy all this we going to have to remove all the plaster from the walls, have it specially treated and re plastered, oh and the floor and joists have to be completely replaced ! So Ive been stamping my feet and having a proper tantrum as all I want to do is decorate.

That on top of lots of other pointless tiny little things has made for a really naff few weeks. But last Friday I received a lovely bunch of flowers from my mate Laura, specifically to make me smile - and it worked.

Then this Monday the cat took ill so hubby had to take him to the vets. We were told it was touch and go, but after some medication and good care we got him back yesterday and a lovely bill for £275, I think we really should have insurance for them.

And to top it all off yesterday the the company I do part time work for told me that there is no more work. Gutted.

But.......there might be a little light on the horizon as I'm waiting for a phone call about a new job already. In the meantime I'm going to put the spare time to good use and get some lovely jewellery made.

Apologies for the long winded moany post, I do try not to do it very often. I will be back a bit later with some pretties that I managed to make amidst all the chaos.