Down with DIY!
It's a right pain, selling your house. First there's the whole thing about 'decluttering', turfing out half of your stuff and then frantically rearranging what's left so that it looks half tidy. But then there's the horrible realisation that there are cracks in the plaster, chips in all the door frames, and the window sills look terrible... and before you know it, you're half way up a ladder doing DIY.
I've just come down a ladder, having spent a beautiful sunny Sunday morning sanding and painting one wall in our bedroom. It's the wall adjoining the family bathroom, and the builder's exertions with a hammer when he was taking down tiles and tongue-and-groove panelling and the like caused cracking on the bedroom side of the wall. The trouble is, we have a water bed and you can't move water beds! Yesterday wasn't too bad because all the cracks were accessible, even if I was filling them at arms length from the penultimate step of the ladder. But today I had to repaint the whole wall, which at one point required me to stand on top of a pile made from two pillows and the two bedside tables on top of each other on the wobbly water bed, with Michael valiantly trying to keep the whole thing steady!
In case you're wondering, the whole wall needed repainting because the technician at the Dulux paint centre refused to make up paint specially for me using the sample I'd prised off the wall - or at least, he maintained that was what he had done until I'd paid for the bloody tin of paint (no refunds, you see). How I wish I'd taken the sample to the Crown paint centre in Fishponds, but after several visits already I was being lazy and didn't want to make the 10 mile round trip. It serves to remind me that laziness doesn't pay... When I got home and painted a sample patch it seemed to match, but it was a trick of the light: once I'd repainted a larger area on the wall adjoining the bathroom, which is opposite the window, it became clear that the paint I bought from Dulux is subtly different - slightly duller in colour. Not noticeable in a small area but jolly noticeable on the wall.
Anyway, now that's done all I have left on the list is replacing two bulbs in the bedroom light (which unfortunately means Michael holding a shorter ladder steady on the waterbed while I climb it to get to the light!), replacing some halogen bulbs recessed into the office ceiling, sanding, sealing and painting a damp patch in the guest bedroom, and oiling the remainder of our bedroom floor and the hallway. Hooray!
Doing the decorating has served a purpose in my own mind: it's given me a sense of distance from the house. I feel less as if I'm clinging on with my fingernails and more like I'm polishing something up to give to someone else. It's been a useful way to learn to let go.
I've just come down a ladder, having spent a beautiful sunny Sunday morning sanding and painting one wall in our bedroom. It's the wall adjoining the family bathroom, and the builder's exertions with a hammer when he was taking down tiles and tongue-and-groove panelling and the like caused cracking on the bedroom side of the wall. The trouble is, we have a water bed and you can't move water beds! Yesterday wasn't too bad because all the cracks were accessible, even if I was filling them at arms length from the penultimate step of the ladder. But today I had to repaint the whole wall, which at one point required me to stand on top of a pile made from two pillows and the two bedside tables on top of each other on the wobbly water bed, with Michael valiantly trying to keep the whole thing steady!
In case you're wondering, the whole wall needed repainting because the technician at the Dulux paint centre refused to make up paint specially for me using the sample I'd prised off the wall - or at least, he maintained that was what he had done until I'd paid for the bloody tin of paint (no refunds, you see). How I wish I'd taken the sample to the Crown paint centre in Fishponds, but after several visits already I was being lazy and didn't want to make the 10 mile round trip. It serves to remind me that laziness doesn't pay... When I got home and painted a sample patch it seemed to match, but it was a trick of the light: once I'd repainted a larger area on the wall adjoining the bathroom, which is opposite the window, it became clear that the paint I bought from Dulux is subtly different - slightly duller in colour. Not noticeable in a small area but jolly noticeable on the wall.
Anyway, now that's done all I have left on the list is replacing two bulbs in the bedroom light (which unfortunately means Michael holding a shorter ladder steady on the waterbed while I climb it to get to the light!), replacing some halogen bulbs recessed into the office ceiling, sanding, sealing and painting a damp patch in the guest bedroom, and oiling the remainder of our bedroom floor and the hallway. Hooray!
Doing the decorating has served a purpose in my own mind: it's given me a sense of distance from the house. I feel less as if I'm clinging on with my fingernails and more like I'm polishing something up to give to someone else. It's been a useful way to learn to let go.
posted by Sara Bowen at 1:58 pm
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