Knuckling down

I'VE been upto my old tricks again this week. With a paintbrush and 10-litre pot of colour.

Husband has, of late, been battling with the north-facing sun with the installation of an alfresco area. The decking took an absolute age and a day to put down.
With three and a half thousand nails to keep it together, it provides the platform for what will be our new entertainment zone.

What I really need to be happening though, is the fast and furious growth of our boundary bushes. Our plot runs paralled to a main road and a bus stop so there's no shortage of Peeping Toms who feel the need to stick their head over the fence and have a sneaky peak at our work in progress.

It puts me off getting a pool just now, I'd rather plough any disposable cash into getting the one hundred and one smaller jobs done and that includes the addition of a fourth bedroom. We have nowhere for guests to stay over at the moment so the sooner this happens, the better.

So, I've spent my day off up a ladder trying to apply colour in the midday sun. I've done my fair share of painting and am no stranger to the world of decorating but never before have I had to work with paint like this.

After an hour, it's consistency resembles custard - complete with skin - and leaving the job for just a five minute break results in the brush drying out so much that painting with a stick would've produced better results...

I've painted in all sorts of extreme weather conditions. Trying to get the job done on days off in the UK, I've painted in the cold, the wind, the sun and sometimes the rain. I remember trying to get our front door coloured up one wintry afternoon kitted out in ski-type gear and gloves, having to go inside every fifteen minutes to thaw out. I think the paint was tacky for three days, but at least the job was done in the time alloted!

As the completion of phase one home improvement gets under our belt, it will surely spur us on to get going with the rest. That's if we can - temporarily - pull ourselves away from the busy social life we have.