The Re-Fit!!

Don’t mention the word re-fit.....although I am pleased to announce the shop has now had a re-fit and is newly decorated........but most of all I’m glad it’s over! Who.....in their right minds would even consider shutting the shop doors on a Saturday at the close of business and hope to re-fit and re-decorate a whole shop by start of business on a Monday morning? Well we did...which begs the question....who in their right minds....which obviously we aren’t it would seem. So the three of us, with basic decorating skills, an unquenchable thirst for interior design and even fewer shop fitting skills, began the task.
Who knew that wallpapering could be so difficult! Mind you, the walls  probably stem back to the Victorian era when obviously spirit levels hadn’t been invented...because believe me....this property does not have one straight wall or a ceiling that is perfectly flat!!! To add to the despair, the wall paper was patterned.....believe me it was soul destroying and coupled with the paste sticking to every conceivable surface on the way to the wall and a rickety ladder....we were grateful three hours in to have three lengths of wallpaper adhering in a reasonably matched pattern and relatively straight to the wall itself....we won’t mention the cut offs stuck to the soles of our feet and the paste covering the entire length of our arms. It was a triumph.....1:0 to us....however...the clock was ticking....the gloss work was wet.....the polyfilla refusing to set and the eyeballs stinging whilst the bodies began to flag and only half a wall papered! Of course we hadn’t completely emptied the shop either...nowhere to store the entire contents...so in amongst this we had to keep moving the rails and furniture around. So, only three more walls to paper, emulsion to do, gloss to finish, eight shelving units to go up and the window displayed to be recovered......amazing how good a cup of coffee can seem at this stage.....and only midnight!
By Sunday morning the reluctance to actually get out of bed and part ways with the duvet cover was overwhelming. A few hours sleep seemed to have gone in the blink of an eye. Dragging ourselves back into the shop was no mean feat.....and it looked as if we hadn’t even really begun.  But bolstered with mugs of steaming coffee and armed with numerous chocolate bars and sweets......we made it through the door, each one of us offering the other positive thoughts and motivational speeches.....who knew we could lie to each other so well!
Sunday seemed to see the clock hands going alarmingly fast......maybe they had been motivated and not us! The wallpapering continued amongst waves of cursing interspersed with rallying songs and music and then pure silence to conserve energy...and what was left to say....”don’t worry...we’ll get it done”?  I don’t think so....in fact at this point I think I would have slapped anyone who said it!  By 4am....we were getting there.......slowly, painfully and in desperate need of sleep...so defeat became the buzz word.  It was obvious the shop would not be ready in six hours to open.....we accepted our lot and trudged off to that glorious place called “bed”. Second round to the shop.....1:1 – and so the tie breaker began.
By Monday afternoon the decoration was done.....onto the shelves!  Unbelievable!  Some walls so hollow even the wall plugs lost their way and dropped into oblivion and some so hard...even the masonry drill looked scared! But we persevered – there was no way we couldn’t open on Tuesday morning.  Finally, it came together...and it looked remarkably good...pride beamed from our faces, and at 4.30 am we resumed our relationships with our duvets...battered, exhausted, scarred and bruised but...do you know what....it was now 2:1 to us...we had done it and to prove it....pictures will follow shortly.