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Leaving the rose arch til better weather arrives, I returned to work on the read and relax room, formerly the pink and white room. It began with a single wall and stripe of floor cleaned, but after my next attack, looked more like a third of the room, or at least a whole corner.

I experimented with chairs and decided that the two green plastic garden seats did not fit nor look good. I would also need them in the kitchen for the time being. I therefore put the stools into position for personal use until such time as the room is finished and I add a small sofa or futon. I even have a small coffee stool!

February continued and so did the gale force winds. We had another casualty ~ the garden fence. One panel squeaked overnight, and on the morning I discovered it had fallen down. It was too rotten to replace and bang back into place.

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Here I am progressing up the stairs with the painting work. In the second shot you should be able to see where I have painted one coat and where two. I had to do a second coat on the hallway and work towards the stairs, although the midsection on one side has still only had a single coat in this photo.

No, I did not uncover a ladder in the undergrowth. The above picture shows what happens when wooden rose arches that are on their last legs and gale force winds get together. Distracting me from further paintwork for a few days, the 30~40mph gales blew down the rose arch remnants. Luckily, I have a new arch ready to assemble, whenever the winds die down for long enough. However, I had to clear the old debris into the patio, and prune the 2 roses back directly. Now, I am set to clear the undergrowth and erect the rose arch at some point.

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These two shots show the area below the window and the table that used to belong to my grandmother that she used as her embroidery/sewing table. This appears to be what people of the first half of the 20^th century had in their lounges instead of coffee tables. Whilst I can sew and embroider, I find it time~consuming and a waste of time. The next shot shows some sort of antique box with broken insert compartments. It is something I do not wish to own, but that might be of value for it is certainly 100 years old or more.

I had not forgotten the painting. My next photo shows the stair roof and one side after a single coat of 'Cookie Dough'. At the time of writing, I have now double coated most of the lower hall and single coated as shown in the above photo.

I then paid attention to the semi~cleared read and relax room. With my first Ebay sale resulting in the removal of my mother's bike frame, I had some space.

Putting the corner tub to one side until it is Freecycled or Ebayed away, I cleaned along one whole wall. Black patches remained, which made me consider painting over the white and leaving the pink...

...but I think readers will agree that the room is coming along, gradually...

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To start today's blogpost, I have a video demo:

 

I did try to combine 3 short videos into one on WMM, but that format will not load on my blog. The video will demonstrate my style of painting using a 2inch brush and emulsion paint on a wall. To see the walls after I painted, a photo might be more appropriate. This picture shows the ceiling and top panel completed, with single coating or nothing yet on the lower walls.

Next, my attention was put into the current pink n white room, soon to become my read n relax room. My first Ebay sale got rid of my mom's BSA bike. This allowed me enough room to begin to fix my room.

As you can see, it does not yet resemble a cross between a library, Yoga studio, coffee room and alter. The plan is to clear it out, clean it up and get it to morph into such, though.

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My new mattress arrived! I managed to carry it up the stairs but not to get a very clear photo of it. It was fatter than my old one, which I approved of as well as being brand new, which obviously lights up my eyes. I decided to lay the plastic cover that wrapped it on the wooden board under the orange blanket and to place the new mattress on top.

It looked firmer, taller, and cleaner ~ three good points that made my appreciation grow. After having slept on it a few nights, I am impressed and can recommend this mattress to anyone local searching for a comfy firm mattress. It should definitely be good support for my now~getting~older body. I could literally feel that every part of mt back was supported ~ rather than hips and shoulders with sagging gaps and bulges between.

 

Prior to actually making up the bed with fresh sheets, I applied a brand new mattress protector. I want this purchase to last as long as possible, as my funding may become limited from a few months on, for some time. I quite liked the new bed once made and have enjoyed sleeping in it since.

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The next excitement was the delivery of my new mattress. I prepared by carrying the old blue one that was threadbare in places downstairs. I then changed the under~mattress blanket.

This orange blanket came back from the hospital with my dad at some stage in the past 12 months, and knowing full well that they dump rather than wash and reuse their transportation blankets, I did not bother to return it, but washed it thru to re~use myself.

I took a break waiting on the new mattress to sort out the read n relax room windowsill. My father had a few propagators. There was a large rectangular one with a cracked base and the one shown in the picture which I decided to keep and use, at least...

...I snipped off the electric cord, as I do not approve of using 'fake energy' and set up the tubs and lids on the tray for manual use. The plan is to sow seeds in February, ready for planting out in March if the weather permits. If the weather finally gives us a winter in Feb/March, I can pot the seedlings up and use various sills around the house until such time as spring arrives. That is at least the plan...

 

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I continued by repainting the ceiling touch up spots and the upper walling, above the trim. I additionally covered the ugly plastic tubing that covers the rewiring job done of the house several years ago. I completed this third day's work by painting the in~hall side of the stairway wall.

The next task was to topcoat the upper wall and stair~side wall, then continue with the next wall. I would then need to work my way around and up the stairs with undercoat and top coats, buy paint to use on the door and trim, and polyfill the large array of cracks at the top of the stairway...

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I have now arranged my new work area for writing/blogging. I began with my late father's laptop, which played up dreadfully, so soon got abandoned in favor of my son's unwanted laptop. He could not use it as one key, the dash/underline key, did not function. I figured for blogging I can use the ~ instead of dash and blog site for underline, and for book writing likewise.

So

soon became

Continuing with the painting jobs, the next stage was the lower hall. I covered the phone table and as much of the flooring and stairs as was possible and began. The lower hall ceiling took around 2 hours to complete. I hasten to add that I prefer to use a brush and not a roller.

After a second coat, it still looked a little patchy, necessitating a few touch up jobs on the third paint attack of the lower hall. I did one last run around of polyfilla in the meantime... including some minor surface cracks and some around the door major gaps.