So…how are we doing?

Really well!

We have now cleaned and put to bed the first half of the house (8 rooms).  The Great Stairs and Lead Stairs have also been completed.  We have now moved on to the King’s Room, one of our favourite rooms as we don’t spend as much time in here during the open season as we do the other show rooms.  It’s also the warmest room!

The Brown Gallery put to bed. Each item of furniture has its own frame that goes around the item with the dust sheet over it.

This week Helen, Emma, Siobhan and I had a meeting in the house discussing various small projects, including the re-display of Lady Betty’s China Closet.  Hopefully by the time we re-open next year the China Closet will once again be displayed more like it was circa 1900.  While work on the shelving and lighting in the room takes place all the china will have to be carefully packed away so nothing is damaged during the work.

Emma and Siobhan in the China Closet

The new synthetic underlay for the Ballroom carpet has arrived.  The last task before the Christmas break will be to clean and roll up the carpet, remove the current underlay (made of wool and being eaten by moth and carpet larvae), lay the new underlay and put the carpet back again.  Sounds easy enough but it is one big carpet!

Madame Baccelli, the 3rd Duke's mistress, put to bed for the winter.

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, but we are still on schedule, and with the help of our fabulous volunteers I am confident we will achieve everything on the ‘to do’ list before our Christmas hols.

The Loggia all wrapped up for winter.

Emily