When I am cleaning windows!

We were spending time at home today doing 'stuff'  - doing 'stuff' is a recipe for disaster because it inevitably leads to the 'stuff' taking longer than anticipated because of a power-struggle between John and I!

When John was away at sea I could DIY to my heart's content.  The end result was generally pretty good, the journey there not quite so but it didn't matter because John didn't have to witness my methods!  

So I have had in mind that I wanted to do something about the view from the conservatory into our bedroom because you get a rather unpleasant view of the curtains which hang a bit strangely because we leave a gap for the cats to come in and out.  I had suggested to John that maybe we got those 'filmed' like all the others, he thought we already had but we hadn't.  The film gives a mirror appearance on the outside but if you are inside you can see perfectly well.

So as luck would have it during a tidy-up Nicky found several rolls of the window film she had put up on her windows when they first moved in.  So I took her up on finding them a home and decided that today I was going to put it up which was fine until Mr DIY-Extraordinaire got involved!  No offence to Nicky but she managed to do hers on her own so I thought I would be able to manage.  To be fair the job went beyond the window film.  It also involved removing the shutters and taking out the old fly-screen which was looking a bit past it and which we had repaired but the repair patches were naff to say the least.

In the bedroom we had to move the chest of drawers to gain access to the windows - this is clearly not something we do very often so it revealed a rather gruesome collection of dust and cat fur.  There is no gap under the front of the chest to give me access but there is a gap at the back so everything had accumulated there.

So there was a certain frisson in the bedroom as we started caused by not having enough room, not having the tools we needed to hand and actually not having much of a clue!!!!  The first effort was going swimmingly until we ripped it and then it had to be removed from the window and we had to start again.

Eventually after several hours and several rows we managed to put the film on the two windows.  It is ok, let's just say we wont be threatening Window Film Ian's livelihood any time soon, in fact John said we should have just saved ourselves all the angst and paid him to do it.  He really is so professional, quick and tidy.  Our effort includes bubbles and cat hair and other unrecognisable 'bits' trapped between the glass and the film even though I cleaned and cleaned it.  However there is a mirror finish now and you cannot see the jauntily hung curtains or anything else in the bedroom.

As the job took much longer than anticipated it was a quick turn round for us after we had finished as we were having one of our regular catch ups with Jeff and Marianne from Arodes.  Jeff has had great news that his recent trip to the hospital showed that he has nothing more than a Hiatal Hernia which is really good news for him as he had feared it might be something worse.  We went to Petradaki again.  It was, by the time we left, bursting at the seams with mainly Cypriot clientele.  We had another nice meal which had confirmed to us that we need to take JJ&S when they are here.