Painting and all that jazz

That's what I've been doing all week - and not in any Picasso sense. It's hard thinking about anything other than the next brush/roller move when you're painting a ceiling/walls. I've lumped them because it's the same principle. Then it's moving the ladder. Before that, it's moving the stuff that's in the way of where you want to put the ladder. 

I haven't done this for a while and had to think hard to remember which order things have to be done in. I prepared surfaces and taped edges and covered light fittings and all that jazz. When filthy and plastered grey/brown, I carried out an audit of materials and annoyingly had to go shopping. I can do shopping. Ceilings. Yes, they have to come first. Then - walls or paintwork? It's one or the other, so I opted for walls first.

Paid painters usually listen to loud pop music on an actual radio and expect whoever's in the house to make them tea - and whoever's in the neighbourhood to listen to the music. I thought it might help to get into character, so I began by finding a pre-digital radio from my store of two in the might-be-useful-one-day cupboard (I don't keep much in there). I thought I'd re-acquaint myself with Radio 4. Not such a good plan. I was so focussed on the brush/roller moves that I found it annoyingly distracting. The accents haven't changed and the focus is even more high-brow. The dramas (three or four) were over-acted and unconvincing. Also - why do we need digital radios? I needed tea, but it's hard to break away to make it. When you eventually get back, you can't see where you left off.

There have been bigger and more troublesome issues. I don't know how to take a radiator off a wall to paint behind it. I have to be able to paint behind/underneath. Of course, I used a radiator-sized roller and for some unexplainable reason, they're not quite long enough grrrr. I was told not to interfere with the light fitting and so I didn't unscrew it from the ceiling (although I'm sure I could have done). And then... worst of all...the damp crumbly plaster above the window. Oh dear. The window is coming out soon and chunks of the wall will go with it. That's when I'll have to bring out the tube of pollyfilla. I'd forgotten about that. Yes, I have successfully filled some holes but am unsuccessful at getting the ceiling ones to lie flat. I just can't motivate myself. I've decided that these are my trademark. 

It was difficult enough buying the stuff. How do you know whether the cracks/holes need expandable/quick drying/deep holes/shallow holes/not drop out of holes, etc. etc. There was almost an isle of tubes and tubs. I nearly bought one of each...just in case. There didn't seem to be one for 'easy smooth ceiling holes'. The paint was problematic too. I couldn't haul a large ceiling container into the trolley so bought a smaller one. As for eggshell paint. I thought that was it - just plain eggshell. No. There's dull, medium and the one that comes above that. I guessed at dull, and I was right yippee! (I checked it against a leftover, in case you're wondering).

In my 'focus', I left my camera behind and couldn't even take pictures of patterned rows of fillers and paint pots and interesting shaped gadgets. Strangely enough and very unusually, I didn't even feel like it. The emergent tradesperson (painter/decorator) is competing with my Picasso self and is winning. The quicker I get it done, the sooner I can get my self back. Maybe music is the answer...

The audit 

(and the only colourful picture of the week)