Month: June 2016

Fall from grace 

| Jessica

Well, just as you think you’re really hitting your straps, along comes a minor disaster to keep the hubris at bay. As I was standing atop my 6′ ladder with a full 4 litre can of acrylic Dulux Antique White, busily painting the largest of my bedroom walls, I was thinking about how my dad, who is a still sprightly 75, would be up here painting, but that if he fell it would be a serious accident. I thought about how fortunate it was that I hadn’t had a single fall in 5 years atop this old ladder. I was happily engaged in this thought when I fell. With a full can of paint. Onto the floor which was only partly covered with a light canvas drop sheet. The paint went everywhere. Onto the floor. The drop sheet. The furniture. Splashing onto the walls. The oil-painted bedroom door which was about to have a new coat of oil paint. Me. 

As I was doing the large rear wall I hadn’t covered the furniture with anything, which wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t fallen. But even the new quilt cover got a little splash of paint. Well. I picked myself up. Adrenalin was pumping so hard I couldn’t tell if I was injured, but I knew I had to get the paint off the floor before it dried. The furniture wasn’t too badly spattered; a few little drips that would peel off when dry. But the wooden floor. OMG. I frantically started to paint the walls with the paint that had glopped on the floor. I was wet, sticky and cold with paint in my hair, hands, clothes and feet. I couldn’t tell where I didn’t have any paint! The door, splashed with half a can of paint it seemed is now half painted Antique White. Not sure how to fix that except paint it all and sand it back slightly. I was working so fast that I was very slapdash, but actually the speed worked for me and the paintwork looks fine. I got most of the paint onto the walls and then I called for my daughter to get a bunch of towels and stuff to help me clean the rest of the floor. Actually I think I probably screamed at her, but she was very good about it! She got me a heap of warm soapy water, some Brillo pads and a mop, and between her on the outside of the room and me stuck inside we managed to clean up the paint. You can hardly tell where it has been, except for a couple of cracks in the floor between the floorboards where the paint got in. 

I am unutterably grateful for the excellent polish our floor sanders applied so well 5 years ago. The acrylic paint literally just lifted right off. The blue Brillo pads helped lift the dried bits but without even scratching the floor polish.

I am also unutterably grateful to my daughter, who brought me cups of water, coffee and a Tim Tam as well as replenishing the mop bucket with fresh hot, soapy water. Even when I screamed at her. Because panic. (Of course I apologised later!)

And after I had finished cleaning up the floor, I cleaned myself up, had a good long sit down and started to feel very very tired. A body response to adrenaline. Well. That threw a spanner into my time frame! 2 hours to clean it all up and only 1 bedroom wall is painted. So today I’ll finish painting the other 3 walls (they’ll be a bit quicker because less wall). To make up for lost time last night I patched some of the ensuite woodwork which speeds things up a bit. Whew! What a day.

So last night I watched a lot of renovation shows (what gives, USA, about those house flippers?!) cooked my usual roast dinner and made Rocky Road for the first time. With cranberries, pistachios and some broken up Tim Tams alongside the usual marshmallows. And had a big drink of Shiraz! 


Today is a new day. With a bruised elbow the only human suffering apart from my bruised pride. Onward and upward. On that ladder. With a dented can of paint and newly acquired extra caution. 

Yet. More. Painting.

| Jessica

DH (darling hubby) is away for the week so I’m taking the opportunity to paint some of the rooms long overdue for a new paint job. I’m doing the master bedroom, lounge room and step daughter’s room this week. 

In the lounge room, we replaced an ill-placed set of French doors with a new wooden wall which until yesterday was completely raw. (Don’t worry, we’re repurposing the doors.)

I undercoated the new wall with Dulux 3-in-1 prepcoat and today gave the whole room its first topcoat in acrylic low sheen Dulux Antique White. It’s brighter than the Dulux Sand Dune half strength coat that was here when we moved in, but still works a treat with our brown furniture, and looks chic and sort of French. 

I’ll confess I’m a lazy painter. The original wall paint is only 5 years old and aside from a brief dust down I didn’t bother washing the walls. Naughty, I know. My experience tells me washing VJs is a huge waste of time. They are so crusty and wonky from previous shonky paintwork that it looks fine with a fresh coat of paint. In fact, because I fix the gaps it usually looks better. 

I’m also painting my stepdaughter’s room, as she shares the VJ wall, which is single skin. Her room is still bright and fresh with Dulux Vivid White. A morning spent gapping her room with various timber bog and selleys no more gaps and her first coat of topcoat goes on in the am. 

However, I’m kinda doing this arse about. I’ve bought a Dulux semigloss acrylic in Vivid White for the ceiling, but I’m putting off doing the ceilings. Because it’s a shitty job. Also, I have to sand the lounge room ceiling a bit because the last painter was even lazier than me and didn’t remove the flaking paint. I also have to gap the bedroom ceiling because that too had a set of French doors removed, and the architraves were pulled back from the wall to fit the new wooden VJs. 

So today I gapped one wall and painted another. I’m a bit slow. Tomorrow I need to give the lounge its final coat, then do the first coat in the bedrooms. A long day, but I only have until Friday to do the 3 rooms plus the woodwork. Ugh. 

Photos to follow.