I thought having my bathrooms decorated would be easy…

You find a tradesman you like, you agree a price and a date…

And you wait.

It was supposed to take three days. That’s what the price they gave me covers. They did one day. Then they did an evening. There was much filling and sanding. The boss admired my daughter’s carpentry skills – she’d replaced the boxing over the pipes that were damaged when I had a flood a few months back.

There were mutterings about problems with the ceiling over the shower. They went home.

Nothing happened for a week.

The weekend?

They rang and said they would come at the weekend.

By mid morning on Saturday I texted to find out where they were. Oh, sorry, they’d had a hard week and were taking the day off. They’d be here on the Sunday.

No. They weren’t.

They eventually turned up on Monday. They weren’t here all day. They had to leave for three hours to deal with a court case for non-payment that had been going on for three years. I was sympathetic. It felt as if this job was taking that long.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…

They were going to come back on Tuesday evening. No. Change of plan. They would come at 8.30 on Wednesday and finish the job.

At 10 am I texted to see if they were coming. They replied saying that they’d be here as soon as they’d dealt with their emails.

Half of September has been taking up with this, the colour still isn’t on the walls. (Mango Melody 5 – a very pale peach – for the main bathroom, if you’re interested. Pink Blush for the shower room. I have grey tiles and wanted warm.)

I’m supposed to be writing a romance. I have a contract, but I can’t think about anything with my study cluttered with bathroom stuff. I’m surrounded by cabinets, toilet rolls, towels, and everything required to keep myself and the bathrooms clean. Plus the new ladder shelf that’s still in the box and a new radiator.

And now that they’ve finally arrived, working in both bathrooms, I need a wee.

Picture me banging my head against my desk…

And then, with a flurry of activity, it was done!

It’s a lovely job and the colours are even better than I’d hoped.  I have new soap dishes, have resurrected a soap dispenser and now have to build the ladder shelf and rehang the radiator and the bathroom cabinet in the en suite. And put up the new towel rail. When I say “I”, I mean my daughter – I’ll just stand by and hand her the tools. I’m good at that.

I need a new bathroom cabinet for the main bathroom and I have to decide whether to hang the long mirror or use that narrow bit of wall for pictures. I need shelves, too. Floating shelves for pretties. And finally decide which pictures go where.

Oh, and finally, finally, to keep the spaces calm and uncluttered, I have to find space for all the stuff that’s piled up in my study.