Redecorating

The fall out from the fire is going to take a while to sort out and we have decided to claim on our insurance now that we have recognised the extent of the mess.  The clothes that were in the wardrobe smell of smoke and will all have to be cleaned.  The carpet does not look as though it will come clean, and the bedding also stinks.  ’ö-Dzin has washed the walls and ceiling twice but they will have to be redecorated.  Then there is the question of repairing the Victorian dresser.  Our insurers tell us that all this can be addressed under accidental damage and so we are handing it over to them.  A company that specialises in renovation of furniture and carpets will be assessing the room next week.

This bedroom used to be Richard’s, and many years ago I painted murals on the walls for him.  As these are going to be painted over, ’ö-Dzin is photographing them for posterity.  Starting from the door and moving anti-clockwise, we begin with an erupting volcano.  Richard was very interested in volcanoes at the time.

The end wall with the window has a radiator below it.  On this is painted lake (no it isn’t the window’s mouth!) and in the lake is a monster.  This is in fact the only remaining radiator in the house and is disconnected.  It has only survived because it was part of the mural and will now be removed.  We ripped the central heating out a few years ago in favour of woodburning stoves and convection heaters.

The mural continues onto the next wall with a snow-topped mountain, a waterfall and a river.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating these pictures which I just painted from my imagination.  It was wonderful to have such a large canvas to play with.  The mural continues round but we cannot photograph the next part until the furniture is moved out of the way.