Ghosts and fleas.

We went to Sydney. Or, more accurately, we went to Ikea Rhodes on a Saturday in Sydney, and it was one of the worst decisions we have ever made. The crowds, oh god, the crowds. Poor Willow. All she wanted was to play on a playground somewhere (preferably at Smaland, Ikea's free kid minding service) but neither Mark or I had to patience to line up for over an hour just so we could get an hour of Willow free time, so she got dragged along with us.

Before cheerfully going along to Ikea to join the lunchtime crowd, we went to the Waverley Cemetery. Which seems an odd choice for a family day outing, but it's really quite fascinating. It's where the rich of Sydney have been buried for the better part of a century and a half- with million dollar views. Lots of fancy head stones, lots of fancy mausoleums. Naturally, I took a heap of photos of said fancy mausoleums and head stones... And my phone never worked again.

Truly. 

Of course, a few days after this willow started waking up with the three marks on her body every two days, which could be a coincidence. Or it could be fleas. Or we could be haunted. We've also had a lot more roaches around the house. Which could be because now the carpet is gone, they're coming up from between the sieve-like floorboards. But creepy crawlies have long been a sign of supernatural happenings- just ask Hollywood. 

M says my phone doesn't work any more because I dropped it one too many times and it finally gave up, and we probably have fleas left over from the previous owner. They've been dormant for several weeks, and now with a warm body in the room (Willow) and slightly warmer weather, they've woken up. Maybe.

All I know is, last night I woke to a thump in the ceiling, then a thump from the hallway, and I swear our bedroom door started to swing open. I started kicking M, trying to wake him, with no luck. I lay there wide eyed for a bit, before climbing out of bed and inching down the hallway, ready to do battle. Then I stepped on a wriggly, juicy, gooey cockroach, and I don't think I'll be the same again.

Right now, Willow's room looks like this:

No carpet! New skirting boards down! Rusty sharp nails and staples everywhere that I'm still pulling up!

Random DIY plug. No idea where it's from. We've been cutting these away. 

Since taking these photos, everything has been removed from those walls and the blind has come down, ready for painting.

I don't know, do you really need to see more photos of Willow's stripped bedroom?

Watch this space. There's likely to be a new fan in here, once we figure out the DIY instructions. 

Meanwhile our spare room looks like this:

Freshly painted walls! New skirting boards! New power point!

Look at all that sunshine!

The wall colour is painted Montpelier. Same as the living room. Looks different in here, doesn't it? 

It's really echoey. During the daylight hours willow likes going in there to yell. At night it is also echoey, but not so nice. Our creaking bedroom door and put creaking floor boards take on a whole new sound when they have a haunted echo to it.

Just to make things more confusing, Willow's room is going to become the spare room, and the spare room is going to be Willow's room. The reason for this is, the former spare room gets loads of sunshine, while Willow's former room was quite chilly and damp. (Because it was south facing and in the middle of the house? Or haunted?) The only reason we put Willow in that room was because it had a wardrobe, but now we have purchased a wardrobe for that room... so voila! Willow gets an upgrade.

This is what the upgraded view looks like.

All three of our bedrooms are getting new carpet in this week, which is really, really exciting- I don't think anyone knows how exciting this is. No fleas! No musty dog smell! The bedrooms will smell like us/ scented candles, rather than smelling like 30 years worth of dust and dirt. The house will be a little more us, a little more ours, and a heck of a lot cleaner. (We're also flea bombing under the house. I've also been washing/ sunning EVERYTHING from Willow's room to make sure no fleas think they are welcome here).

Today we will rip up the carpet in our bedroom, and live in the living room until Friday. Thursday is new carpet day. It's like Christmas, except Christmas where you have to bring your presents down from the north pole yourself- we just have to remove all the old carpet, which means removing everything from the bedrooms. Which is a pain. But, we will get there, and soon we will have glorious new carpet. Glorious.