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.
17 Comments
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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.
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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
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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.
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forgetmenot525 wrote on Jul 19, '11
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.
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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.
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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!
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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!!.
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artprevails wrote on Jul 17, '11
Wow! I am impressed! You got a LOT done but what a great feeling, eh?
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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. :) |
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forgetmenot525 wrote on Jul 17, '11
:-)
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.
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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!
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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.
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