Tuesday 29 January 2008

DIY Day 2: The Aftermath

Oh, how I long for the naivité of yesterday, when I thought painting white ceilings white was a chore! Compared to my tasks today, painting ceilings is a job so rewarding it makes finding the cure for a debilitating disease seem like a mere frippery. At around 12 noon I realised that the least rewarding job in the decorating sphere is, in fact, carefully painting the back walls of shelves that will always, always be hidden from view by books. But then at approximately 3pm I accepted that the least rewarding job in decorating is actually painting behind the pipes that run underneath a radiator, an area that would only be visible if one were lying face down on the floor about a foot from the wall and took it upon oneself to scrutinise the zone in question. Not only will a good 60% of what I painted today be invisible to the naked eye for the majority of its span, but I had to pay good money for the paint.

To give myself credit where credit is due, I did a good job picking the paint. Now, I'll admit that I really only bought it because the colour's name is Antelope and I felt inexplicably drawn to it. Having seen it on the walls, I can see that the Honesty team at Dulux must have fought hard to label the shade Wet Cement but I do understand why, as a name, Antelope won out. Thankfully, it looks great and I'm really quite smug about it all.

Along with that minor excitement, today was a little trickier than yesterday. I had very little sleep last night (for a very good reason) and was consequently extremely tired this morning. When my new dishwasher and cooker hood turned up in south west London rather than at my new flat, therefore, I was a little tetchy. Then my central heating wouldn't work. But the Argos men arrived on time, the BT man was lovely and I had a delicious Thai takeaway with Luke tonight, while he stole 8Gb of my music. You win some, you lose some.

Tomorrow I'm moving off vinyl matt and onto eggshell emulsion for the woodwork and metal pipes. Sarah and Emily are coming over in the evening to snoop so I'm hoping to have the heating back on by then. Thursday we're into the spare room. And by Friday I'll probably be at the osteopath with a shoulder injury caused by RSI. I'm having the time of my life. Seriously. I'll be in serious debt for the Rest Of My Life but it's worth it.

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