Man cave gets makeover

Farewell man cave, the good husband's love affair with you was brief. As with everything, so it too has come to pass that you shall be turned over to Mim...

In preparation of its transformation from dark and dusty man cave to play room - not the Fifty Shades kind I hasten to add - we have become very well acquainted with Gumtree, Urmston's finest charity shops, the local tip and memories we'd long forgotten.

Boxes unopened for several years contained odds and bobs from lives gone by. Why on earth had we hung on to some of this stuff? My home and my heart feel so much lighter for finding a new home for the happy things and unceremoniously disposing of the rest. For his part, the good husband actually consigned his Kurt Cobain pictures to the bin, but with a wry smile I note that 'Festival Hat' was retained. His beloved amp was sold, courtesy of gumtree, to two kids with stardom in their eyes and their parents hard-earned money burning a hole in their pockets. They knocked on to collect it and I lost Mik for an hour as he went on a nostalgia bender with the young pups. Emerging later he announced that they reminded him of his younger self and that he was driving them to the pub so they could have a celebratory pint with their new amp. Only the Good Husband...

The unexpected bonus from all this sorting, selling, lugging and trashing has been the discovery of Millie's favourite new pastime - a trip to the local tip to 'feed the junk monster'. After seeing a big yellow digger crush some of our meagre offerings she laughed like a hyena possessed and cried as we left, wailing -'junk monsteerrrr', 'I NEEEEED to see him' through gasping sobs. Oh the melodrama! We have now added junk monster visits to our list of favourite freebie outings.

So, the cellar is finally empty and work has started. Hooray! In five more weeks we'll have some new rooms to fill with Millie's paraphernalia, somewhere to hide all the mounds of washing and ironing, and I get three more rooms to clean... Hmmmm, didn't think this one through...



Where did the stairs go?