The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

Well… kind of… it is week three and we still have a LONG way to go with the prep… our bathroom work starts next week [3 weeks behind schedule] – you always hear that phrase on renovating shows and I always wonder “how??” – but it’s reality I guess… decisions take longer than you think and schedules need to be juggled…

As organised as we have tried to be it seems it will take as long as it takes. Remaining optimistic about the situation I figure it gives us a bit more breathing space to get things right and take it a little slower to make the correct decisions.

So – we have begin prepping the rooms for painting and decorating – we ripped up all the carpets in anticipation hoping and praying that we would find wood – and we did! It felt so good!

The floor is mostly in good condition but as neither of us has ever done anything of this scale before it is overwhelming to think about how to begin. I had always imagined you would rip up the carpets and off you go! But there are nails all over, some of the boards are loose… and there is carpet glue and sanding and glazing to tackle [trying not to think about this one]…

The lovely window panes were covered in thick layers of decades old paint which we tackled in every possible way – chipping, hand sanding, electric sanding… so we can begin painting them again!

We also discovered beautiful brass window latches that were buried under the years of paint – so wonderful and glowing to reveal [with an enormous amount of Brasso and brawn]!

That along with long weekends of tile shopping [NOT as exciting as it sounds] we have both felt pretty drained working all the hours we have spare.

BUT with our builders booked and reasonable quotes received, happier and warmer weather spent working with our balcony windows and doors wide open we can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh – the one respite has been the paint testing! Glorious shades of dense Farrow and Ball that will one day adorn our walls – shades of Elephant’s Breath, Pigeon, Mizzle, Pavilion Gray, Oval Room Blue…