The way in

The entrance to our little house in the oldest part of the village, the first house we bought here ten years ago and where we used to spend holidays before we lived here all the time. I feel very attached to it for all sorts of reasons and it always feels like a happy house, but when we moved here permanently we soon found it was too small for all our books, pictures and, well, just our life. A tenant has been living there for the past two and a half years but he's now left, so over the next six weeks we plan to redecorate it, refurnish it and generally get it up to standard as a simple holiday let in time for the summer. So this is my first response to the 2011 Challenge - work

Everything seems to involve work this week, in the garden and in the house(s). After a month without paid work, I was beginning to enjoy having time to do everything else, but at the end of last week I was unexpectedly offered some work I can't refuse, so it's lucky that Lo Jardinièr is willing to do the hard refurbishing work while I sit at my desk, and put up with my complaints about having to do it!