Throwing on my overalls
I often talk about getting in from work, throwing on my overalls and plunging into work, the reality is not always true. Sometimes I have to see my daughter, sometimes I pop in to see the folks on the way home, sometimes a boiled egg and soldiers becomes a snooze on the couch while watching Eggheads.
This Tuesday was however the full Monty, getting home from work and through the door and upstairs, ripping off my work gear and straight into my overalls and fetching knee pads. Knee pads being the de rigueur accessory of the moment, having tripped over a kerb while running the other night (still on the painful road to recovery after snapping a ligament in my ankle during the last Great North Run) and now picking out gravel from my knee meant that kneeling was a little painful and had been for the full weekend.
Anyway wimpishness aside, I was in my paint spattered overalls and looking manly within five minutes of getting through the front door. Tonight was paint night.
Now the large front bedroom had been painted to within an inch of its life, I think it was now sporting a full three coats. Unfortunately though I had got the jobs the wrong way around and having used the room to stack timber and sand floors and cut planks the walls were now looking shabby. There were dints and scuffs and lots and lots of sawdust staining on the walls. I had already cleaned down the walls with a brush and then a rag and some sugar soap over the weekend but it still needed a fresh lick of paint.
Anyway I had plenty of paint, a fresh set of rollers and brushes so I was ready to go.
I think every job I do I forget how long it has taken in a previous incarnation and this job was not an exception. I did have a couple of phonecalls in the evening but all in all I didn’t expect it to drag on for four hours. I started by hand rubbing down the skirting again as I’d re-filled it a second time over the weekend and then it was on with the paint. The detailing around the windows, skirting and generally any edges takes all the time, the filling in with a big roller is much more satisfying and allows one to just have a bit of fun rather than the concentration of doing a frigid little line of paint.
The room is a subtle mix of two warm greys, the end chimney wall being a little darker, this barely noticeable feature giving the room a little more impression of depth, this however did mean more cutting in at the edges and the night did drag on somewhat doing this extra detailing, it was worth it though.
Anyway a 10:30 finish and I was washing out my brushes and trays in my lovely green bathtub before climbing into it myself.
Still a very successful night was had, I felt heroic again and I felt I could justify a night seeing my little girl the next day. The day after though and it would be a superman decorator strip into my overalls all with the intention of applying the first coat of Satinwood to the skirting and dado rails, surely this would only take a couple of hours, I never learn.