Let’s Stick Together

Hurrah! The hall floor covering is finally going down. Ply down first and then a layer of glue ready for the first lot of vinyl. Looking back through my emails, I found that it was September 2018 when we originally ordered the carpets and vinyl, so it has taken well over three years to finally get it completed. The carpets were done at the end of November, as a special favour but the vinyl is a much more involved job and had to wait until now. All this, of course, because the decorators overran and we missed our original end of October slot for the floor coverings. Which doesn’t really explain the previous three years of inactivity, but we’ll put that down to unreliable contractors in 2019 and covid in 2020/21! I should also mention that what we originally ordered for the hall was no longer in production when we came to confirm fitting this year, but I don’t think that’s entirely a bad thing as - with the benefit of time to reflect - I have a feeling we might have tired of our original “jazzy” choice quite quickly. Much happier with what is going down now as it is more muted and a lot easier on the eye.
Sods Law of course dictated that today was also furniture delivery day, meaning that no sooner was the first bit of vinyl glued down than people wanted to traipse across it with chairs and settees. Thankfully, the whole delivery went very smoothly, taking only ten minutes. There was just enough room to get everything in without needing to take doors off and a piece of ply was put down to protect the freshly laid vinyl.
Whilst we arranged the new furniture in the lounge, the fitter was able to get on with sticking down all the intricate fiddly bits of contrast stripes, borders and door plates, though we had our feet up long before he was anywhere near finished. It’s amazing how long it’s taken to do such a small area, but I’m told it’s because the glue has to cure for a while before the pieces are stuck down. Paradoxically it wouldn’t have taken any longer if the space had been ten times the size because there would always be a bit to work in whilst the glue was curing in another area!