A degree of incredulity regarding my proposal in the previous post to pick up a brush and paint. A couple of reasons, the first being the alternative.
It is true that for not a lot of money you can employ workers to slap some paint over any surface in brush range. But the hassle factor is very high. You can’t just go away and do something else while they are “working”, you need to be around to ensure they are not painting the wrong room with the wrong colour, or stealing anything that is not nailed down (and if they happen to have a claw hammer in their feeble collection of damaged tools, being nailed down is no obstacle to theft).
The entire extended family will arrive to “help”. Last week I had a toddler beating out a tune on my polished furniture with a metal set-square, at which point I was meant to smile and tolerate the local culture, rather than drop-kicking the little shit over the balcony.
There will be hassles, there will be errors, and the end result will never be something you can admire as a fine example of artisanship by craftsman whose skills have been honed over generations. What you get is something produced by an occasionally sober farmer with a squint and a hammer.
The second reason is not so obvious and only dawned on me yesterday as I found a certain peace; perched on a ladder, spotted with paint. I haven’t done this for years and I rather enjoy it.
The last house I owned was in Aberdeen. It was next to the sea which was very pleasant, but therefore required external painting with marine paint every year, which was not so pleasant. But I rather enjoyed the process and there was satisfaction in standing back and finding a small part of one window which I had not smeared with paint, from which the family could watch a gathering storm.
Then I left Aberdeen and for the next twenty years or so I moved to various places around the world where I lived in accommodation either owned by the company or rented by the company for me to live in. Which meant that any form of home improvement was not an option. There is an upside to this of course. Living in one place for 3-4 years is just enough time, provided you live carelessly and have a lot of parties, some of which include indoor fireworks which are meant to be outdoor fireworks, to reduce your home to uninhabitable rubble. Then you move on and start all over again in another unsuspecting property.
My last posting was in Bangkok where I initially lived in a 300+ square metre monster apartment with appalling furnishing. I fought back by installing a Persian cat which systematically destroyed the mosquito screen doors by launching itself at them and then hanging there like a Garfield toy on a car window until they collapsed. I also installed a girlfriend whose contribution was to spill a full bottle of nail varnish remover across the top of a rather nice (up to that point) 3 metre polished wood dining table.
After the Persian cat experimented with jumping off the 21st storey balcony to see if if could fly (it couldn’t), and the girlfriend experimented with giving me hell for months to see if our relationship could continue to fly (it couldn’t), I moved to a very smart, brand new pad in All Seasons Place for a couple of years.
During this time I bought my current condo. It was new and bare. No flooring, no aircon, no nothing. With an extremely competent Pattaya-based manager from Finland, I wrote cheques while a motley collection of labourers fixed, broke and then fixed again until I had the semblance of somewhere I could move into once I finished work in Bangkok.
That was about seven years ago, which is why we are now getting into the cycle of needing to refurbish, and why I feel the need to wield a brush again after twenty five years free from trying to get the paint out of my hair.
And so yesterday I painted. For about five hours straight. Then I read the tin and it said I could apply a second coat after allowing four hours drying time. So I had some noodles and then launched into a second coat for another four hours. Then I had a large meal, two beers, and a very good night’s sleep.
Still some finishing off work to do this morning, but it all looks very smart; the colour is a richer green than portrayed by the camera, a good selection by she who must be obeyed.
The computer room now awaits the delivery of the furniture, the installation of which will no doubt wreck much of my good work. The focus now moves to the bedroom which is a bit more challenging and will probably keep me busy for the next three days. After which I expect I will have had enough of being a handyman and will go into DIY hibernation for the next twenty five years. Anybody want to buy a brush?
Comments 🔗
2009-07-05| San saysI like the new colour.
2009-07-05| genuine j saysAnd to think I thought flooring was boring.
2009-07-07| mart saysThey have a good team of painters at EmergingTiger.
2009-07-07| mart saysI’ve had quite a few Persian cats in my life. They were all nuts. “Excessive inbreeding” was Grandma’s explanation. Then I bought a beautiful Oriental cat which is basically the same as a Siamese cat but with a different fur pattern. It was like having a little tiger at home, very elegant and sensual and, at “mating time”, a real nymphomaniac. “Something in the water” was Grandma’s explanation.
2009-07-07| wenthworth saysWhat! You like painting? My advice is to lay off the thinners.
2009-07-07| Spike saysMart, very cool cat, although it looks like it needs a meal.
Wenthworth, thinners are part of the attraction. A dash of gin and some lime; delicious and you can buy portable stomach pumps nowadays.
2009-07-07| mart saysIt has to earn its meal first, I’m not Mother Teresa… Well, how to put it, I think I like them anorexic thin and I guess you would make the same statement if you saw my girlfriend. Of course I would answer “she has to earn her meal first!”.