No sir.
Better yet, I picked probably the most humid day this century to start painting cause I'm real smart like that.
I'll admit - I hadn't planned it out very well... although if you weren't actually you and I was talking to my husband then I would be saying "Of course I planned this" (with a big fat NOT under my breath).
It's not like I haven't given this redecorating project of mine enough thought. I have actually been talking about doing it for like eleventy years and I had already decided that this is the year.
It's just that I hadn't actually picked a day when I would start and so I can understand why Carl was a bit shocked that one minute I was lying by the pool reading Real Living Magazine and then the next I was in my cossie and a towel lifting the lid on a tin of undercoat.
"When did you decide you were going to start this?" asked my startled husband.
"Just then" I said as I came out of the garage with an arm full of paint.
"It's Sunday, we are supposed to be relaxing" the husband declared.
"I am relaxed" I responded calmly as I stuck his screwdriver into the tin of under coat and gave it a good stir.
"It's too humid to paint today" he tried.
"Pfffft" I sniffed as I dipped my paint brush into the tin and slapped a big stripe of undercoat on the wall.
"You haven't prepped the wall properly" he accused me.
"YES I HAVE" I replied (OK shouted) indignantly as I eyeballed him and grabbed the closest dishcloth and started slapping at the wall in a defiant show of "I KNOW what I'm doing".
And I do.
Kinda.
I have watched enough episodes of The Block to sort of know what I am doing.
It's painting.... just painting right?
So the first room I had randomly chosen to attack is the entry and stairwell.You can see in the very old photo above that it had boring taupe walls. In fact nearly ALL the main rooms in our house are that blah boring taupe, except for two that were red ... or burnt capsicum to be precise... a throwback to my love of red and chocolate colours in 2007.
I have since re painted one of those walls white and the other Jade green, but the rest of the taupe walls are taunting me and quite frankly it is time for them to go.
The taupe is a nice enough colour on it's own, I really don't have anything personal against taupe... much... it's just that it is so dull and blah in this house.
You see our house faces west so the back rooms get the bright morning sun and then after that there is not much sun action until the afternoon when once again it comes blaring in through the front rooms.
The house just needs to be brighter and clearly the answer to this predicament... is to paint everything white.
And so I started with the painting and about 30 minutes into my mission I started having second thoughts.
It was hot, and humid and did I mention SO . FLIPPING . HOT?
I had stripped down to nothing but a cossie (such a good look - NOT) and still I was sweating like a pig at a BBQ.
"I CAN do this" I said in a lame attempt to motivate myself, "I can".
Annnnd once I convinced the hubby to go to Bunnings for another tin of Primer - I did do it. For five whole hours straight I DID IT.
I undercoated two doors and all the walls in the entry and the stair well like a pro people.
Oh OK maybe a pro would have spent *ahem* a little more time prepping the walls... whatever. With the undercoat on I was ready to finish the job with the top coats.
And then the rain started.
And the rain continued.
AND it has rain ever since.
THREE whole frigging days and 8 frogs in the pool kind of rain and now my walls are sitting there all undercoated and stuff and annoying the crap out of me. And what can I do about it?
NOTHING.
I cannot do a single thing because EVERYONE knows you can't paint on a rainy day....
can you?
Just asking!
So I don't really have much to show for my first progress update... except for these really bad iPhone photos of undercoated walls and carpet that I think may need replacing too.
I'll just add that to the list for another stinking hot day.
Have you attempted a DIY home makeover?
Any tips you can give me?
Just don't tell me you can't paint on a humid day because...
I KNOW OK, I KNOW!
