Magis Quam Ornaturique
Posted By Judith on 7th November 2015
It will soon be that time when traditionally we stop and take stock of the ups and downs, highs and lows of the year that is almost gone.
If the Queen can have her ‘Annus horribilis’ then here at ‘Grassy Bottom’ we can have our ‘Magis quam ornaturique’. Let me explain.
Whenever I bump into one of my neighbours, dressed as I usually am in paint splattered jogging pants and a scruffy shirt, the conversation eventually gets round to something like, “I see you’re still decorating”.
Given the length of time it has been going on, they could be forgiven for thinking we are the slowest decorators in the world. Either that or we’ve decorated the house from top to bottom twice in twelve months, neither of which is true.
After the builders left every room needed decorating to some degree. We tackled the hall and shower room in a reasonable time frame, but the room that has taken most of our time and effort, the one that we have created from scratch, is the dining kitchen.
One of the first jobs we tackled was building the book shelves either side of the chimney breast.
We then had to source and paint the various kitchen units. That process alone took many months.
In between we made our own curtain poles.
A couple of jobs I didn’t write about at the time were cutting half an inch off the bottom of the French cabinet we bought at Xmas, because it wouldn’t fit under the beam, and putting an overmantle shelf on the chimney breast above the cooker.
After the painting was finished we stripped, stained and polished the floorboards in the dining area, and had originally decided to go for vinyl cushion floor in the kitchen bit, but so far that hasn’t happened and we’re considering painting it. (Watch this space.)
Who could forget the what-not shelf?
Then there was refurbishing the ‘altar’, the fiasco with the Chinese rug, and more recently the wake table.
Having said all that, we’re both pleased with what we have achieved so far, but we still have a long way to go, and not for the first time I question the wisdom of embarking on such a project at our time of life.
Peter says it’s been his ‘Magnum Opus’, and he’s right.
I prefer to say that what we’ve been doing here is ‘Magis quam ornaturique’, MORE THAN DECORATING.
Apologies to any students of Latin who might have stumbled here by mistake!
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