It's over a week since we made a start on wall-paper stripping and, so far, the house is still in chaos and Pascal has only put the first coat of paint on the ceiling.

Things are not going according to plan.

Firstly, because of Bear's bad back we couldn't get into the bedroom to wash the ceiling and finish off cleaning the walls - the unpleasant task of removing the last annoying bits of paper and then sanding the rough parts - as he spent most of the day in bed.

Eventually CC did the ceiling on Friday evening after he had got up but we didn't manage to do the walls before Pascal arrived on Saturday morning.

Bear had had the choice of sleeping downstairs and getting up early or struggling up to the spare room so he could stay in bed. He opted for the former but was sitting uncomfortably in his armchair when Pascal came to make a start.

However, we didn't have any usable rollers or brushes. The ones Bear had put away after the last decorating hadn't been cleaned properly. Pascal made us a shopping list which grew ever longer: rollers and brushes, sandpaper, tape to protect the edges, silicone for CC's leaking shower, another sort of silicone for the door and window in the bedroom, the French equivalent of polyfilla etc. and Jay and I went off to the shop while Pascal decided to start lookng at the electrical problem in his room.

The spotlights in the ceiling had gone out one by one and now none of them was working. Jay had been using a halogen lamp for some weeks and resisting Bear's offers to find the problem (which was more serious than simply changing the bulb I hasten to add).

The big D.I.Y. shop, Brico-Depot caters for the expert. If you know what you want and where to find it, all well and good. If you don't, it takes a good half an hour to track down a shop assistant only to find that it's not 'his department' and you'll have to 'wait over there to see my colleague'. Jay was in a hurry to get back and then go to the gym so we went to Leroy Merlin  where you can easily find someone to help and advise. With the approach of Hallowe'en half the salesforce were dressed as witches or ghosts but there were still alot of 'normal' assistants so we managed to get all our shopping done in less than twenty minutes - and that included waiting for the paint (for the walls) to be mixed as the colour mixing machine was broken down when went last time.

When we got home Pascal had found the problem. He had climbed on top of the bedrooms and discovered that the transformers for the spots had all burned out because they were underneath the fibreglass insulation. In addition, some of the wiring had overheated and there were burn marks on the fibreglass as well. The lights in CC's bedroom and the guest room are still working but there were the same signs of overheating on all of them. What a potential fire hazard!  And to think, the previous owner was an electrician.

Pascal asked Jay to help him with a bit of measuring and then came downstairs and made another shopping list for replacement lights and wiring.

After lunch he went to look at CC's leaking shower. That involved dismantling it, and putting it together again using silicone. But the leak had completely ruined the lino tiles. CC had been hoping to replace them with 'proper' tiles sooner or later. It now looks as though it's going to be sooner. Doing the floor means moving the sink unit. I have to admit it is an eyesore so we'll probably replace that as well.

This bedroom makeover is turning out to be far more expensive than I'd imagined. The savings I'd drawn out to cover that AND Christmas won't stretch that far. Looks like it'll have to be a scaled down celebration this year but everyone agrees it's more worthwhile to improve the house.

It looks as though we'll be living in chaos for much longer than anticipated too. Pascal is not coming back till Wednesday evening.

Update:  Pascal came to collect his toolbox on Tuesday evening and announced he'd see us on Saturday. Methinks progress is going to be very slow.