Having just arrived back from Belarus covered in mosiquito bites and smelling pungent, I opened the flat door and the first thing I noticed was a strange smell other than myself. I chose to ignore this smell and surveyed my terriotory aimlessly as if I had completely forgotten the layout of the flat from being away for a week. I mindlessly opened the office door and was struck by how clean and awesome-looking it was. I seemed to remember it looking a bit shit before.

Ye olde office

Ditto

My brain adjusted and I realised that the cheap Ikea desks never used to be white, and they used to be covered in holes, scratches and office excrement. Had Heather painted the tables? What about that crappy bit of furniture I made at the back of the office? It now looked new and as if it had beenbought from one of those shop things. I was amazed. Heather had bought a power tool and tins of goop and sanded and filled and painted and varnished and rearranged and generally made my office look nice and an attractive place to want to work in.

New shiny office

Even the picture frames weren't safe from Heather's DIY zeal

I momentarily felt a little bad for taking so long on sanding down the rocking chair I got her for Christmas, but soon forgot about that and kept staring at the amazingness of the office. My only regret is missing out on her headphone/goggle/mask look. All I can say is what a lovely surprise and that I have a lot of catching up to do points-wise now.

Heather's DIY extravaganza has spurred us both on now to start trying to improve the space we live in regardless of whether we own it or not. Watch this space for a (long overdue) blog overhaul with the focus being on DIY. We have been looking for a flat to buy now for six months and we both realise that we would like a bit of a project, so hopefully soonish we will be the proud owners of our very own dump where we can document painting each other, putting nails through gas pipes and getting as many foreign substances stuck under our nails as possible.

Progress! Everything's painted and varnished, and two of the desks have already taken up their positions in the office. The third desk - the one I mangled - is lagging behind a bit because I had to sand it down again and repaint it. The paint doesn't cover the sanding marks perfectly (I should really have given it another coat of primer to help smooth things out, but time wasn't on my side), but in a dramatic break from my usual perfectionist tendencies I've decided not to get hung up on it. Besides, this is the desk that was sporting a fairly large hole until wood filler and I forged our beautiful friendship, so it's looking pretty good all things considered.

As for the storage unit, Mike had once casually mentioned that he thought would look good with an apple green interior (I may have elicited this information via the subtle technique of asking him). B&Q didn't have any wood paint in quite the colour I had in mind, so after much agonising I settled on Dulux's "kiwi burst 2" (hey, it's a green fruit). When I got it home and cracked it open it looked a bit darker and brighter than I'd been hoping, but I managed to convince myself that paint dries lighter than the colour in the tin. I may need to rethink that theory - I'm pretty sure the freshly-painted kiwi interior glows in the dark, and possibly guides ships into harbour.

I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'd buy an apple this colour. Note how I've thoughtfully painted random bits of the floor white to coordinate with the outside of the unit.

In preparation for getting everything set up tomorrow, I thought I'd give the office a quick tidy and get rid of any miscellaneous items it had somehow managed to accumulate. So far I've removed two large sheets of green foam, a pair of water sports shoes, a saw, some fake grass and three walking stick handles. I'm beginning to wonder whether I've slightly misunderstood the nature of Mike's business.