July 17 2011, Garden no 13

Update on the painting

By midday I’d managed a few hours sleep, the headache was under control, the sun was shining and I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to carry on with the painting. Outside painting can only be done when its not raining, not even a little bit damp and preferably when the sun is shining to speed up the drying process. We don’t get an awful lot of days like that in Scotland, so when perfect painting conditions occur, you have to go for it. My iron gate is a disaster, it needs doing again after yesterdays rain but I couldn’t face another day with the gloss paint, not after yesterday.

This cheeky chappie spent the afternoon stealing my red currants, I would rather have harvested them myself but I guess providing food for the birds is better than letting them go to waste.  No sign of the baby thrush today, I’m hoping that’s a good sign.
Some of the fences and wooden edging was streaky and needed touching up with blue timber paint, but that didn’t take long.

The bulk of my day has been spent with the white masonry paint. It doesn’t smell as horrible as gloss, and it doesn’t give me such a headache, but its equally messy and I find it quite hard to apply. BUT…..I’ve worked long and hard today and think I’ve actually finished with the white paint. I started re-painting all the walls, but then I realised how much paint it would use and how much time it would take and decided to just touch up the bits that had flaked or suffered frost damage. Most of my day has been spent on fiddly bits. The little white kerb stone on the edge of my garden is now white. I didn’t even know it was there until I had the hedge removed. While I was painting the fence I decided a white kerb stone would show off my new fence perfectly. The old tiles around the pond were broken and flaky. That happened the first winter, I learnt that interior tiles are not designed to withstand the Scottish winter with its frost, ice and storms and now the whole lot are covered in a couple of coats of external masonry paint. Hopefully that will survive the winter intact.
I built a small breeze block edge along the bed where all the fruit canes are, that had a couple of coats and looks much better for it. I’ve also made a little corner by the gate to keep the recycle bins tidy. They kept getting shoved around the garden and never seemed to land in the same place twice, they have a home all of their own now which I’m sure will keep the garden much tidier. When I first painted every thing white a couple of years ago, I never did get around to painting the inside of the steps, until today. That was quite hard work because my walls are textured and its really hard to get the paint into all the little pits and lumps. Once the first coat is on its not too bad but today, it was starting from scratch on the steps. It took forever. On to my next years corner flower bed. Actually, it’s a big pile of upside down turf, covered in black bags, that I’m hoping will rot down over the winter. We didn’t know what to do with the turf when we dug up part of the grass for the veg patch. So we piled it all up in the corner and hoped it would rot down over the winter. I built a little wall to keep all the earth in place and now that little wall……………is white. Something else I didn’t get around to doing last year was painting the original corner flower bed, but now it’s done.
It’s a good feeling to know I’ve cleared away the timber paint, cleared away the masonry paint and only have the gloss painting left to do.  Once that’s done I’ll have to go buy some more concrete floor paint to repaint concrete slabs. Hopefully all of this will be completely finished before school starts again.
I'm still covered in white paint, I look like a snowman,  I have bits of white paint flaking off me and drifting all over the room. I have white in my hair, white under my fingernails, white all over my clothes,  if I don't go get cleaned up every thing will be covered in white.

Tags: garden, garden2011, plants, pond

Prev: Garden 2011, no 12
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edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jul 19, '11 Thanks folks ....................I love sharing my little garden projects here, its nice to know some folk actually enjoy my garden posts.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jul 19, '11 veroniquemariquita said I have a really ugly set of steps that is the outside entrance to my basement. Your nice fresh white paint with blue trim is giving me inspiration to spruce mine up a bit. don't you just hate 'ugly' in the garden, I do. I'm really pleased I finally got around to painting the steps, it will look even better when I find the red concrete paint to do the tops of the steps with, Last time I painted the steps I sourced the exterior concrete paint at a local store that has closed down now so I'm just hoping I can find some some where else. And yes.............it really is very nice to stand back and admire what's been achieved. :-) almost makes the backache and headache worth it

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jul 19, '11 mitchylr said It's all looking good. As the weather was pretty dull yesterday, I decided to make a start on my living room ohh when all this is done and the weather turns, I will carry on with my living room, its half stripped right now. Don't know about you but I never use gloss inside, for interior wood, radiators etc I use the silk finish wood paint, its water based, I couldn't stand that awful smell indoors, it would make me ill.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jul 19, '11 esoterika713 said What kind of paint are you using? Is it oil? its the blue gloss paint for the exterior doors and iron gate that gives me the problem, yes that is oil bases and revolting, but nothing else will give that sort of protection, and with our climate, plus the salt air, we need the protection on exterior surfaces. ...........The other paints are OK, the white masonry paint is water based as is the blue timber paint.

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Jul 19, '11 I have a really ugly set of steps that is the outside entrance to my basement. Your nice fresh white paint with blue trim is giving me inspiration to spruce mine up a bit.

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Jul 19, '11 You have everything looking so neat and tidy now. Doesn't it give you a good feeling just to sit back and look at all you have accomplished!

delete reply forelithe wrote on Jul 19, '11 Good for you ! The textured walls go really quickly with one of those hugely fuzzy rollers, but they also use more paint. It's the edging and corner brush work that takes all the time

delete reply djdx wrote on Jul 18, '11 Looking spiffy!

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Jul 18, '11 You did get quite a lot done!! Well done. It's all looking good. As the weather was pretty dull yesterday, I decided to make a start on my living room. It's gonna take a . I spent several hours 'cutting in' along the edges of the black wooden beams in the ceiling. It's a really awkward fiddly job and I've got a crick in my neck now!!.

delete reply artprevails wrote on Jul 17, '11 It all looks beautiful!

delete reply artprevails wrote on Jul 17, '11 Wow! I am impressed! You got a LOT done but what a great feeling, eh?

delete reply esoterika713 wrote on Jul 17, '11, edited on Jul 17, '11 What kind of paint are you using? Is it oil? I volunteered to paint one of the buildings in our co-op yesterday. About four hours worth. I do the garden which counts as volunteer time so anything extra is good too. It looks like your hard work is paying off. Your garden looks amazing. I like the white. It is something I would never have thought of but it looks great. :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jul 17, '11 nessiek said Have you looked at your first photos to see how far you have come? :-) I do like to look back and compare. Thats part of the reason I keep this garden blog, all garden entries are numbered and tagged so If I want to I can bing them all up and go through them one at a time ( so could any one esle if the really wanted too) I wasn't quite so careful with the earlier ones but I'm used to doing it now .............best record keeping method ever I think.

delete reply nessiek wrote on Jul 17, '11 Fantastic! :o) Have you looked at your first photos to see how far you have come? Brilliant job!

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Jul 17, '11 great job, Loretta.....i loved reading about your garden adventures and ventures and the photos are fabulous. your creativity and enthusiasm are an inspiration. kudos to you, my dear!

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Jul 17, '11 I'd say you deserve a good rest, but I suppose you'll have to finish the panting first. Hope it all dries.

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Jul 17, '11 lol you are so cute in your discrptions but a big KUDO on what you got done it all looks really good :)