Scaffolding.

 

Firstly I must say that I HATE scaffolding, and ours will be taken down as soon as possible. Scaffolding makes the whole area look scruffy.

We finally decided to paint the front and back of our bijou residence. We are the last to do so in our row of four houses, and we were beginning to look a tad scruffy. The painted surfaces are quite small, so we decided to do the job ourselves; with the help of grandson Suave Harve. In doing so we have saved a considerable amount of dosh; and Harve's Beer Fund has benefitted.

There was a small amount of preparatory filling to be done, which I undertook myself, otherwise it was a simple paint job.

All tradesmen charge a fortune these days. A professional painter would probably have charged anything up to £5,000. We ordered the scaffolding ourselves (£900), and bought all the paint etc (£70), so it made sense to clamber up the scaffolding with brush and a pot of paint, and to do it ourselves. The saving was enough for a Caribbean Cruise, a crate of Bollinger, and a month's stay at The Savoy.

This past Summer I fell off ladders TWICE, and I still have a sore head as a souvenir. So I wasn't really looking forward to going up to do too much, but I'm a foolhardy soul and I couldn't resist. In fact I could hardly wait to do some climbing and view the house from a totally new viewpoint.

The filling of tiny cracks was child's-play, and was almost a pleasure to do. The weather was perfect, and the filler I'd bought was very user-friendly. The two walls, front and back, were ready to paint in less than a couple of hours. At the same time I squirted some clear silicone into the joins between some parapet tiles. As I was busy atop the scaffold, my neighbour 'The Bishop' went past and we had a few words. I felt blessed and much safer.

Many years ago when I owned a big classic Brighton Victorian terraced house, it was painted white back and front. We employed a business called 'University Painters' to do the painting job. They were a couple of female students, who earned themselves a pretty penny painting houses at weekends, by just using ladders. No scaffolding for these intrepid erstwhile wall-artists. They had no qualms about climbing-up three stories of ladders, and did a great job.

No doubt with Elf-n-Safety rules these days, such enterprise would be BANNED.

Our present work took just one relaxed day, and the finished job looks great. We used 'Sandtex' Paint, which is slightly textured, and is very forgiving. The finish is very smooth.

Well done Harve; job done! 

p.s. I am now wondering what my left-wing trolls will find to insult me about. I'm sure they'll find something.