Renovation project - decorating with milk and becoming a stalker! - Wednesday 3rd October 2012

Renovation project - decorating with milk and becoming a stalker! - Wednesday 3^rd October

Lots of clearing up to be done as we need to get the room ready for painting, its finally taking shape we can see the light at the end of the tunnel (again).

Although we have ran into another difficulty the windows we were going to replace are a different size to the original windows and as there is nothing wrong with the frames, we decide to try and just replace the window panes, this will also mean that we do not require planning permission (which would be good as we have not got around to putting the plans in to the Mairie yet). I seem to remember that Sheila and Brian had done something similar with their windows, so we will go and speak to them for advice.

The room is cleared a much as it can be, and we start on the sanding of the walls, this is not a good job as there is so much to do. We have bought some fabulous filler it’s called ENDUIALO, it comes readymade in a tub and is extremely light.

We have used this before in the UK, as a fine joint filler (it works wonders on lining paper joints as well) it is also much cheaper in France than the UK.

The next few days are spent on painting, mainly because the paint we have is dreadful, we bought 3 different 10 litre tubs of white to see what they are like, only one was nearly Ok (this was from Costorama) the worst one was the equivalent of painting with milk! So once again what should’ve been a relatively quick job has taken a few days. We will be bringing paint back with us when we visit the UK.

On the wall that I destroyed when stripping the paper, John added some plaster powder to the paint to thicken it up, this has now covered better but still needs a quality coat to make it look good.

But the walls are now all sealed and the dust should become more under control on the top floor.

We spend an afternoon with Sheila and Brian, as it turns out the windows were fitted by the previous owners, so we don’t get much help there, but we do get to spend the afternoon in a clean house with nice people and a steady stream of tea!

The weather has not been too good recently and the washing is starting to pile up so I take a trip to the launderette to dry it, this is when I get to sit back and really appreciate being here, this is the view from the launderette, have you ever seen such stunning scenery? It makes such a boring chore so much more bearable.

I also turn into a stalker on Thursday, my daughter sent me a message saying she really missed me, so I thought something was wrong, I try to message back but no reply for a few hours, so I send a twitter tweet to her and still no reply, so I send another and eventually get her on the phone where I am told to stop clogging her twitter page and her partner is going to change the phone number and not give it to me!!!!! So much for being missed!!!!!

Top tips

1.       Buy quality paint, the price is not a guarantee of quality

2.       Add anti fungicide to the paint this will help with controlling black mould on the walls (this is the equivalent of turning your paint into bathroom/kitchen paint at a fraction of the cost).

3.       You can buy this from England also, from a quality decorating shop not B&Q etc

4.       Do not damage the walls before painting them!