Honey, I painted a house!
Jul. 1st, 2021 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boothrosFor those that don't know, I rent an apartment within a building that used to be a shop, right on the seafront on the English South coast. (The following picture is of the shop in it's heyday sometime during the '80's)
The landlord (I'll called him 'LL') is an elderly Indian gentleman who's family once ran the shop. LL is a very easy going chap to whom I'll be forever grateful for providing me with a home at a time that I really needed one. He has no qualms about me doing whatever I like decor-wise, and I've spent the last four years lovingly renovating and sprucing the interior to my liking.
The building is divided into three. I have the entire upstairs, a staircase and a downstairs utility room, the 'downstairs neighbours' have a large place beneath me and to the side is a bedsit occupied by an elderly neighbour (I'll call him 'EN').
Until last September, my 'downstairs neighbours' were very pleasant foreigners, 'Miss Lativia' and her partner 'The Mad Pole'. (I'll call him TMP). TMP was potty as a box of frogs, an extremely likeable 'Jack of all Trades' yet master of none. TMP had done all sorts of crazy things around the place and as a newcomer to the scene, I was unwilling to intrude. Sadly, last year after twelve years together, Miss Latvia and TMP parted ways and the minute he moved out, I started to attempt to right all his wrongs.
TMP had painted the building's exterior several times during his residence. Unfortunately, on none of these occasions did he use a high-quality paint and many a time, he'd water down his cheap paint in order to make it stretch. That's fatal in a place such as this that needs all the weather protection it can get. TMP had no thoughts about protecting the building, he just painted because he was bored.
In October last year as the new 'downstairs neighbour' moved in, I decided to stamp my seniority on the place and announced my intention to re-paint the entire building. October was not a good time to start painting a house, but nine months later, I wonder if any such time actually exists.
You might well ask why painting a house should take nine months. Admitted for half that time I was actually working my paid job, but the project DOES seem to have taken forever. The weather has rarely been with me. There are certain things you can't do in inclement weather. You can't paint during sea storms and you can' t use filler if the temperature is lower than five degrees. Sod's Law of course, ALWAYS decreed that my days off coincided with the worst Satan could throw at me, whereas my work days would remain calm and fine. Other tasks were time dependant. One thing that REALLY niggled me was TMP painting this pretty little metal-framed window with water based paint, sealing in the rust (and also using a different colour to the rest of the wall). Before I could make good however, I had to apply more putty which takes weeks to cure, remove the rust and prepare the surface. The difference between the pictures is about five coats of paint and two months.
The thing went on and I finally saw good results in April when I managed to paint the front of the house. This part of the project had to be carefully managed weather wise and I was all too concious of being exposed to the all-seeing world. I painted like a demon during the morning hours when most of my neighbours were not at home to laugh at my efforts. The pics probably don't show the effort involved which included bucketloads of filler and cement to make lots of bad things good, but here is the before and after:
The landlord (I'll called him 'LL') is an elderly Indian gentleman who's family once ran the shop. LL is a very easy going chap to whom I'll be forever grateful for providing me with a home at a time that I really needed one. He has no qualms about me doing whatever I like decor-wise, and I've spent the last four years lovingly renovating and sprucing the interior to my liking.
The building is divided into three. I have the entire upstairs, a staircase and a downstairs utility room, the 'downstairs neighbours' have a large place beneath me and to the side is a bedsit occupied by an elderly neighbour (I'll call him 'EN').
Until last September, my 'downstairs neighbours' were very pleasant foreigners, 'Miss Lativia' and her partner 'The Mad Pole'. (I'll call him TMP). TMP was potty as a box of frogs, an extremely likeable 'Jack of all Trades' yet master of none. TMP had done all sorts of crazy things around the place and as a newcomer to the scene, I was unwilling to intrude. Sadly, last year after twelve years together, Miss Latvia and TMP parted ways and the minute he moved out, I started to attempt to right all his wrongs.
TMP had painted the building's exterior several times during his residence. Unfortunately, on none of these occasions did he use a high-quality paint and many a time, he'd water down his cheap paint in order to make it stretch. That's fatal in a place such as this that needs all the weather protection it can get. TMP had no thoughts about protecting the building, he just painted because he was bored.
In October last year as the new 'downstairs neighbour' moved in, I decided to stamp my seniority on the place and announced my intention to re-paint the entire building. October was not a good time to start painting a house, but nine months later, I wonder if any such time actually exists.
You might well ask why painting a house should take nine months. Admitted for half that time I was actually working my paid job, but the project DOES seem to have taken forever. The weather has rarely been with me. There are certain things you can't do in inclement weather. You can't paint during sea storms and you can' t use filler if the temperature is lower than five degrees. Sod's Law of course, ALWAYS decreed that my days off coincided with the worst Satan could throw at me, whereas my work days would remain calm and fine. Other tasks were time dependant. One thing that REALLY niggled me was TMP painting this pretty little metal-framed window with water based paint, sealing in the rust (and also using a different colour to the rest of the wall). Before I could make good however, I had to apply more putty which takes weeks to cure, remove the rust and prepare the surface. The difference between the pictures is about five coats of paint and two months.
The thing went on and I finally saw good results in April when I managed to paint the front of the house. This part of the project had to be carefully managed weather wise and I was all too concious of being exposed to the all-seeing world. I painted like a demon during the morning hours when most of my neighbours were not at home to laugh at my efforts. The pics probably don't show the effort involved which included bucketloads of filler and cement to make lots of bad things good, but here is the before and after:
