Move any Mountain

(The Shaman, 1991)

Still there?   I wouldn't blame you for tuning out. 

So yes, we moved.  And it was enough of an ordeal for me not to want to re-live the whole thing any time soon, but I will try and record some of the highlights here so that, in years to come, we can look back fondly at these happy days of dust, boxes and bugs...  

Behold the bathroom, the day of the 'move': 28 November.

... and the staircase. A fairly major obstacle to moving in, since the 1st and 2nd floors would have to be out of bounds while this was sanded and painted. 

So the Plan D, agreed while the movers were navigating their way round the Schaerbeek one-way system, was that we would be allowed to occupy two rooms on the first floor, where we could pile up our belongings, while the workmen scurried around finishing what they could. 

And what about our little family?  After calling around various B&Bs to see whether they would house two downtrodden adults, two coughing babies and their double buggy, we took up the generous offer of friends who live on the next street to stay with them until the house was ready.  An offer they may have since regretted, as it became clear that we were not talking a few days, but a good week and a half....

A Kind of Magic

While a number of the window frames were being opened up, quite a few of the original mouldings suffered some fairly serious damage.  These were however magically replaced. 

First, they take the measurements of the existing mouldings (not sure how they did this - I imagine some fancy laser beam scanning device).

Then, the specialist company produces a length of mouldings which has the same profile.  Actually, it's fibre-glass covered with plaster. 

Then the damaged part is cut away, and the ceiling coated in something presumably very sticky... 

And the new piece added.   Ta da!  As good as new.