Wish I hadn't started!

[LittleBrownFrog]

Our cat licks gloss paint if given the chance. We have to shut the room up completely until everything is completely dry. When we did the hall, we ended up putting him in the cattery for a week!!

[p.penn]

OMG - I hadn't even thought about licking! I was thinking she would just lean on it and go to sleep, so when I came back she would have set solid to the skirting board.

She's not impressed today





Bless her!

[mrs boodles]

Definately looks as though she is sulking, I used eggshell on the skirting boards and although not so shiny as gloss, did dry faster.

[p.penn]

For some reason (no idea what!) I always use eggshell in the bathroom I do like gloss woodwork though.

[pavel131]

Have recently decorated from top to bottom, as we are moving. No mean feat seeing as we have a town house. Ground floor plus two higher floors. We have four bedrooms, Office, Bathroom, on suite shower, toilet shower downstairs, large living room and large kitchen, not to mention 100' by 25' garden.
We are down sizing now that the birds have flown the nest.
Put it on the market four weeks ago; and hey presto, the second couple to view it have bought. Happy days.

[p.penn]

This morning I decided that probably, if i was being absolutely truthful, the ceiling needed a third coat So I asked my neighbour to pop over and look, and he thought the ceiling would do, but the bit from the ceiling tot he picture rail needed another coat.

So I just prepped the woodwork today and will do the extra bit of emulsioning before I start on the gloss, tomorrow.

One bonus was that I moved my grandfather clock (not terribly old, charity shop find, but hasn't worked for about 10 years) and it started up again, probably due to being level, and kept going! Then it took me half an hour to find the keys It chimes every 15 mins and is sweet - now there's another story....

When I first got it I had my youngest son still at home. He went mad saying he couldn't sleep through the chimes and this went on for a few weeks. Well, I thought this was absolutely hilarious, as on the dial, there is a little lever which turns the chimes off, but I thought it was payback time and I wouldn't tell him.

One morning he came downstairs in a right mood and said he had nearly picked it up and put it in the garden in the middle of the night. He was soooo moody!!! I was laughing with his girlfriend about a week later when telling her (in secret) about the little switch. The next day, the chimes were off.

[LittleBrownFrog]

My Mum collects old clocks. My Dad hates the sound of clocks ticking and striking. So, they have a house-full of clocks that aren't wound.
When I was a child, Dad used to go away quite often, either for work, or with the STA. As soon as he had left, Mum would zoom around like a mad thing, winding all of the clocks.
Now, he doesn't go away very often at all, but the clocks need to be wound every now and again, so Mum brings them here a couple at a time.

The bit between the picture rail & ceiling in our front room ought to have had another coat, we didn't (can't remember why), but I notice it all the time

[p.penn]

I am glad you said that - in fact I am still a little worried that I should do the whole ceiling again too! Amazingly, despite my lack of organisation/housekeeping skills, I am a little OCD about decorating properly

I have many clocks - if I had more rooms, I would have even more! One of my favourites isn't working at present - it is a little vintage ('50's? 60's) clock with a music box alarm. It fell gently off something and stopped working. I am sure it is nothing much, but have never got round to getting it mended. It's rusty and shabby, but I love it.

New plan for painting is 3rd coat white emulsion and first coat of gloss tomorrow, then second coat of gloss either sun eve or monday. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I have decided the first bit of wall emulsion will be by the shelves, so I can get the stuff back on them, pronto!

[Annie]

Helen - did you put up a warning that there were going to be pictures of Bailey - you know I need to be advised if I am about to get a 'fix'

You are doing a grand job decorating a room that is used do much, shifting stuff around etc its not that easy , sensible targets and it will be mission acomplished and boy wont you be posh (no more hosting AGM with that messy lot coming round, dropping bits of gammon and sloshing alcohol about) X

[p.penn]

Done the third coat above the picture rail (and some bits of the ceiling) and thought I would just mask the carpet and walls for the gloss (told you I was ocd!) before taking Bailey for her walk, and all the damn masking tape has stuck solid on their rolls

So, I am sitting having a coffee, then will take Bailey out and will have to go to the shops to get some more tape. While I am there I think I will buy the emulsion and some more paint pads so it won't be a wasted journey. I am unstressed with it now. Coffee is wonderful!!!

[p.penn]

Umm....well that didn't exactly go to plan! Went to the local hardware shop where I got my other stuff, got the masking tape but they had run out of paint pads and the 5L base for the colour emulsion I want

So I made an executive decision and drove to a nearby town to go back to wilkos where I had seen the paint in the first place, albeit in 2.5L tins. So extra petrol, plus parking fees...guess what? They only had one tin left Managed to get a paint pad though.

So back home, and started masking and gloss painting....not that easy as the dog wanted to help So I have barricades all over the place which makes it impossible to move anywhere....and then the electric went off. I was up the ladder when the doorbell went - a neighbour wanting me to phone the electricity company as when he rang to report the power failure, they didn't believe him. So down the ladder...clamber over junk...squeeze past the piano..... then my mobile phone (which is on the kitchen table to get a signal so down the ladder etc) rang twice (the electricity company) then someone came to the door for eggs....then my phone rang again...then the dog managed somehow to get paint on her and the kitchen lino....

It's no wonder I finished the first coat at 7.45pm!

I am a little bemused that the brilliant white gloss is very much whiter than the brilliant white emulsion, but I am less bemused than I was thanks to a couple of lovely G&Ts.

[Gwenoakes]

Oh, Helen. You have made me laugh. You are doing a sterling job and dont let anyone tell you any different. Paint on the kitchen floor.........no probs with what you have already had to do and put up with. A complete walk in the park. Glad you are enjoying your G & T, I am as I have no Bacardi left..........I have plenty of coke though, so I will pretend.

[p.penn]

Thanks Gwenoakes! I am feeling a bit exasperated this morning as the ceiling definitely looks 'winter white' and the woodwork 'sparkly white' . After all that hard work too.

I had been thinking while doing the third coat on the ceiling, that if I only do it every 17 years, it will probably be the last time I ever do it as I am lethal on a ladder now, let alone when I am 70! I am now wondering whether to start all over again with different paint

Working today, so may or may not do some more glossing when I get back. Probably not actually! Can't decided whether to give the woodwork another coat - the door frame will need it, but I think everything else looks ok. Mind you, it will only take a few hours....I'll see.

The gloss was still a little tacky this morning, and trying to find a way to get the dog through a gap in the barricades and out of the front door without ruining my efforts, was interesting!! Mind you, I can blame the dog all I want but it was me who put my hand on wet gloss 4 times (yes, 4!) yesterday evening.

[Gwenoakes]

but sorry, still got to too, especially at the hands on paint 4 times. That is just the sort of thing I do, so your not on your own. Have a good day at work.

[p.penn]

Well, my daughter unexpectedly popped in with my grandchildren yesterday, just as I had started the emulsion! The kids thought it was chaos heaven, and got stuck in with the painting!! Bless them!

I think I must have been in more of a muddle than I thought, as this morning the phone rang, and they asked if they could come round today and help again! So, between us all, we finished. It looked absolutely gorgeous!!

Then tonight, I knocked over a glass of kir - all over the newly painted wall How was that possible? I have never, ever, ever, ever managed to spill a glass of wine over a wall ever, ever before, let alone a newly painted one

I very gently wiped it off but have taken the paint off too. I am hoping my sense of humour (and my will to paint) returns by the morning.