acacia blossoms

acacia blossoms

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Paint Storm

Painting the house – which is always better than burning it down like the song.

It started with a serious well overdue need to repaint the kitchen white. Hide the bits where bat droppings have leaked down the walls, ancient cobwebs have fossilised onto plaster and just generally too much dust in the rough surface. It’s been too long – how did that happen. Ok off to town to invest in some lovely white velveglo. Start the process. And while you are at it, let’s paint out that ancient corkboard we inherited when we moved in. Great idea... lick, slap, splodge.

Have you noticed that if you repaint one room, all the others start to look shockingly shabby too?

The windows on the stoep (veranda) for instance. Putty had been replaced in places, left to harden, and then just left to crack. Buy some nice fresh summer green paint. Tape up the edges – do it properly. And off we go.

I am a very messy painter. I’d forgotten just how bad. Soon, skin, clothes, hair, floor and windows need constant attention. Tarrah. Whisk off the masking tape and … oh dear… quite a lot of paint found its way underneath so windows now have frilly painted edges like an elaborate doily. Hmm, disappointed but if I leave my glasses off it doesn’t look too bad and hey! It matches the cushions. And look how it brings out the other colours.

Right - now the main bedroom. The once white walls are now faded to a slightly yellowed white. Lashings of velveglo and Turrah! again… now the box-wood-packing-crate ceiling must go….No more that strange distorted face in the wood grain to look up at! Body is aching now. But it all looks good and so LIGHT – a person could get snow blindness on a sunny day!

Turn around and – oh yes the bathrooms. Too much green paint now everywhere. Blue is the answer. Buy blue paint inspired by colours seen on a trip to India a few years ago. I remember a bathroom that was swamped in blue – walls, floor, and ceiling. Going to the loo there was like a meditation session or being submerged in a dolphinarium – without the dolphins.

Ok I won’t go that far, but the cupboards door windows – yes! Wow this blue is much brighter than I planned. Quite a few times I think I have finished, mop up all the splotches, put brushes in water, pack away. Look again and …uhoh missed a bit.
Bring paint back, fix. Put away. Another missed bit. Did that quite a few times. Now the blue is shimmering and blasting its presence into the smallest rooms.
I am trying not to look at the white bits of walls……….. Or the office…….or anything that looks like it might be improved by paint. I have quite a bit left over so this is not a safe house to stand still in at the moment.

Oh yes and the monkeys have fled the overwhelming miasma of paint fumes … he he

12 comments:

Lori ann said...

Val,hahaha! exactly the way i wouldve done it. painting is best done as infreqently as possible, but i love what a difference it makes. love the india blue. did you have a bath to go soak in after you finally put your brushes away?
x lori

A Concerned Citizen said...

Wish I could be there to help. I love to paint, and I'm pretty good at it. I was going to paint the dining room a couple weeks ago but other matters intervened. And you are totally correct -- once you paint something, everything else wants to be painted, too. Good luck -- I'm there with you in spirit!

tam said...

Heheh! I so know that feeling. Itchy brushes...
Once you start painting the trees you know you've gone too far!
I love your blog, and thanks for all your sweet comments on mine.
xx

Unknown said...

LOL! At least you've found a way of dealing with the monkeys!

Best you just admit personal "defeat" though, and succumb to painting the rest of the house - you know, once started, why stop!? :-)

By the way, unless you don't want your guests to eat, never paint a dining room blue - for some reason it causes people to lose their appetites, unlike if you paint it red - then they'll eat you out of house and home. Just so you know... ;-)

Val said...

thanks all for your lovely funny comments :-)

lori ann - yes thank goodness! I suppose it will be a while till the next paint storm - time to forget again.

Adrianne - if only I'd known! we could have had fun :-)

Tam- watch out trees.......... have you started the books yet??

Ab Vanilla - yup the monkeys are gone - apart from the occasional sideways glance in passing. but paint miasma also diminishing so i guess they will be back in force before long..
hmm interesting about the blue and red tables!!! luckily i havent started there yet.... but now i think about it...........

xxx

Reya Mellicker said...

That's one way to scare the monkeys away!

You know the law of intertia - that once something is in motion, it tends to stay in motion until it comes up against a brick wall? I believe this law works very well in the realm of painting.

I painted my bedroom a couple of years ago. Thought it would be such a quick job, but it went on and on (many cute little angles and corners and weird wall shapes). Then I HAD to paint the stairs leading to the main floor of the house. Then the countertops ....

Like you, I am not a pristine painter. Oh well!

Anonymous said...

It's amazing how many more jobs turn up from what you may first have thought was a relatively small one!

CJ xx

Angela said...

Val, did you hang up signs, "Don`t touch the walls / and the cupboard doors"? Maybe for the monkeys a sign with a crossed-out monkey touching a cupboard? Otherwise soon (once the smell is gone) you`ll find shiny couloured blue and green and white monkeys (and baboons) on the trees?

Val said...

Hi Reya - the law of inertia - yes...makes sense! painting is really fun but cleaning up the mess is not so fun :-)
thanks for your lovely thoughtful and empathetic comments

crystal jigsaw - greetings! thanks for popping in. loving your blog too.

xxx

Val said...

ha ha geli - never thought of that but luckily no monkey business went on :-)

Fire Byrd said...

I've just got rid of my lovely turquiose hall. It won't do as a colour for when I try and sell my house. But I do miss it.
x

Val said...

hi fire byrd - that is a pity. turquoise is such a GORGEOUS colour! hmmmm...... What colour did you change it for?
have hung up my brushes for now and enjoying all the fresh paint.
and yes... the monkeys are back :-)