Nothing like a nice new room and a live DVD of Marillion playing Marbles in glorious 5.1 to take me to my ‘Fantastic Place’.
After a lot of work by all the family we’ve finally finished the renovation of our living room. We’re pleased with it, just the small detail of paying for it now. 
Dave helped with the nasty work of removing all the old plaster, rendering and the ceiling. Apparently we looked like a couple of miners after removing the ceiling. 
Before and after photos…
Getting back to those bricks was hard labour
The newly plastered walls are sealed
The first coats of colour
In my 'Fantastic Place'
Yesterday we returned to the house, after a trip to Norwich*, to find the strobe light flashing on our alarm system. First thought was, it can’t be Dizzy setting the alarm off. In the past he had hidden in a bedroom, unnoticed by us as we left and when he’d wandered downstairs the sensor would trigger.
Sure enough some person of questionable parentage had forced entry through the bottom panel in the back door. Thankfully the alarm must have frightened them off, because luckily for us, nothing seems to be missing… phew!
Today I’ll be checking the alarm and replacing a pet friendly detector that may not have triggered.
Top marks to the Police though. A couple DCs arrived within the hour with a Scenes of Crime lady who dusted the kitchen floor and door with silver dust. She managed to get some evidence that seems likely to tie up with some other break ins. One DC made some house to house enquiries, not easy on Halloween night. 
On the up side we bought a Wii Fit yesterday, which looks fun. It would have been rather ironic and frustrating if we’d returned to find the Wii had been stolen though. 
* We saw Ghosttown, quite a funny film if you like The Office.