The Great Septic Tank Disaster last week completely overshadowed any other concerns in my life. It even made me forget to share the final results of my "decorative lime coating" experiment in the dining room!
Here's a photo of the final stage: painting on a border. The stencil was supposed to be "new and improved": self-adhesive and made in easy to use three meter lengths. It sounded very practical, but in reality was a nightmare. It stuck to the ladder, itself, my hair, the cats...everything except the wall. I ended up having to cut it into meter-long sections and sticking it up with masking tape.

I think the end result was worth it. I'm SO happy with how it turned out. Even JP was impressed. "This looks great!" he said. "You should do it in the rest of the house!" I was flattered, but did feel a tad faint at the idea of spending another month or two struggling with the fancy plaster, especially when wallpaper goes up so easily and would be done in a jif.

Here's the view from the kitchen, through the hallway and into the living room. these are the next areas I'll be attacking. On Monday, I'll start hunting for wallpaper and then on the 18th of October, the old stuff is coming down and the new will go up.
Cristie the Romanian Handyman will be back to help, so it should get done pretty quickly.

The plants drying on the right are some lemon mint for tea. The sign over the door is a gift than an elderly neighbor carved for us.