WINTER WONDERS 30

The second week of December was drawing towards its close and here is where I was at. 'Playful Pink' satin gloss coats 2 and 3 to go on the trim, small windows, and door - then the final painting tasks on the lower walls. Firstly, to patch over the troublesome under paint and secondly to paint over any splashed gloss. The second task will be easier than the former and take only ten minutes.

The patches where the original green paint is still peeling away from the walls under my recent painting are troublesome indeed. A few have sealed and healed with the glue stick - the rest remain peeling and cracking away.

I have noticed that some parts of the walls feel soft - and am wondering if there is something wrong with the plaster - and spongy. I wonder if it is possible that moisture from the floor/former carpet has seeped up into the walls and this is creating the trouble. Therefore, whilst I address the remainder of the gloss painting and over-paint any splashes of gloss on the wallwork, I have got the heater on again - trying to dry any possible wetness in the walls. If this does not work, nail varnish, more glue, and screaming will be next on the agenda - in that order.

This is not acceptable - to me. The brush holder itself only needs a wipe over and rinse out, but the brush - EW! The handle is in three screw-together bits, so not very strong, but the fact that my son does not rinse the paper off when using it has clogged it up also, and so... it was time to say 'BYE BYE LOO BRUSH'!

I went to the store on the second weekend in December and bought a new loo brush! I will see if the new brush fits the old container or not, perhaps...as I liked the old one better and the new one is plastic rather than ceramic...

WINTER WONDERS 29

Here is where I was up to when the undercoat dried and the splotches had been 2nd dabbed after glue application. My next shot shows the second coat of pink gloss applied to the main front window, which I did first of the second coats as my friend still has our curtains at her house and Christmas is coming up...

I am unsure if the gloss will need a third coat or not - but there should be enough left to do 2 or 3 coats on the door/windows/trim - but I may need a second pot for the furniture. Now - how were those 2nd-dabbed blotch-spots going? Hmm...............

As you can see from the above bright shot, the third coat was needed to make the main window look lovely. It was finished in the second week of December, leaving me second and third coats to go on the trim, mini windows, and door. I then need to readdress those stubborn 'flakey green paint' peelings under the lower wall.

Yes, the window was looking good, so I got onto my next task - washing the floor. After my friend and I had spent an hour and a half scraping carpet underlay off the floor, she suggested cleaning it with soapy water - which was my next task and has now been completed in the areas without carpet. It does not look much better - but much muck must've been removed as the water was filthy after doing the task.

GARDEN GLIMPSES 29

I had a horrible shock as I was greeted by daylight one Sunday in early December 2015. The council had completely gutted the yard next door and the hedge of various shrubs and bushes including the honeysuckle was now completely gone - only the wire fence remained! I quickly found a large sheet of corrugated plastic and made a small windbreak, but the yard is now open to the gales that whoosh about and my plants may suffer til the hedge is replaced - on my side.

Just as a refresher for anyone who has not been a regular reader, THIS is the before...

...and after shot of the fence between our properties. A few days later, they had taken out even more of the foliage between our properties. Here, you can see the former golden holly tree that stood several feet tall and provided nesting sites for doves and berries for fieldfares and redwings during cold wintry months.

Alas, a day or two later, the council returned and chopped the lot down. The whole tree has now gone.

By the looks of the back fence of next door, they had accumulated as much junk as my late father. My mind flashes back to the past 2 years where my friend assisted me to remove his junk supplies to the tip via multiple carloads...

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I patched the glue-covered patches in the pale mauve paint and then proceeded to begin to paint the hot pink trim. I spent around 3 hours doing this and completed the undercoat on the entire room of trim, windowsills and door. You can view me in action HERE and HERE.

I also took a few more photos of the room after painting the entire hot-pink undercoat.

My next task was to re-dab the blotches where that wretched green paint kept flaking away my new paint. Maybe THIS time, now glued and once dabbed, the paint would fix and stay fixed? Fingers crossed...

GARDEN GLIMPSES 28 and link

Here you can see some goodies that you might mistake for garden items - but NO! They are going down to my allotment plot. The netting is to cover the fruit bushes next season; the bottle of coffee grounds/coffee water rinsings is to de-slug my crops/add to the compost, and the bag of fruit and veggie scraps is also for the compost.

Now I have two tubs down on the plot, and none at home, all my scraps/grinds go down there. The smaller newer tub is now 'ready' for spring digging, while the larger original tub is being perfected for next fall!

The back yard contains a hedge, mostly situated next door at #9, and growing over into our yard. The sparrows enjoyed nesting, resting, and living in the hedge. I said enjoyed, not enjoy, as the lady at #9 died and the council have gutted the yard as well as house. Further along, the thick hedge now looks exceedingly thin... (NB - the hedge is no more at the time of posting!)

...whilst the birds are NOT happy, I am considering whether or not to re-cover and use the poly tunnel now that there is more light. I will wait and see what my friend says.

Another garden job lying ahead is the patio - I now own a patio greenhouse and hope to erect it prior to February ready to sow vegetable seeds. I obviously need to clear the patio first, though...

Finally for this post - HERE is a link to my online sale - I am trying to sell rather than dump these items - but they will go to the tip/garbage if not bought soon - as I want the room in my room! please check it out and spread the word - in case you see something you fancy.

WINTER WONDERS 27

THIS was a corner of the bedroom - and I was fed up with seeing this mess. I did make a start a while ago, but it was time to continue to sort out the crap. I started by emptying a box and...

... did a bit more turning out. Mostly, it was plastic bags - which come in handy now the shops charge for them - and out of date paperwork, to be ripped and thrown out. There were also a few bowls, plates and things.

I also ripped the out of date diaries and paperwork out of my bedside table hole and off the pink pouffe. this area was neater too now...but I did not feel satisfied. MUCH more work lies ahead before the bedroom feels 'right'. Multiple bags of garbage piled up...

Back to the spare room horror-saga. Regular readers may recall that I aimed to buy some nail varnish or glue in order to cover the flaking paint edges so as to repaint the flakings. I did buy the glue during the first week of December and here is the result...

...I will let you know shortly if it was a success or if I am going out to buy nail varnish tomorrow....

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I began on the third and final coat of paint to the lower walls of the spare room. Overnight it dried and looked fairly good. As you can see, the two colors are similar enough to look suited yet different enough for show. However, I had a problem...

...The green paint that had been under the layers of ghastly wallpaper was still flaking off. Nothing seems to stop it from peeling. I have washed, sanded, vacced, picked, over-painted the darn stuff several times but still have THIS -

- greeting me. Meanwhile, it appears that our new next door neighbors do not like gardening or birds - as the council have began to strip their back yard. Gone are all birdware and the shed and here go the plants...

While the council were busy razing the yard next door, I was busy completing the third coat of paint in the spare room. As November draws to a close, the top coat is finished - however, the painting is not, as I still have multiple patches to attend to where the green stuff is peeling off.

In this last shot, you can see how the walls look colorwise - although I still have to re-sand/fix somehow/repaint the patches. I am thinking there may be some sort of glue or clear nail varnish perhaps that might seal the edges...

FALL CLEANSINGS 58

I finished the undercoat layer in the spare room, as you can see by this shot taken shortly after I cleaned the paintbrush. I think that it may need three coats, still - but there should be plenty of paint as it is a giant tub that my friend gave me.

I covered over the sanded paint flake-aways and waited overnight. Alas, yet again, more paint peelings. The next morning I groaned at the sight of them, but got on and painted the first wall with a second coat of paint anyways. As you can see by this photo - also taken shortly after rinsing the paintbrush out - it is likely to need a third coat as expected, though it is looking much nicer and the final color is now able to be estimated.

This shot shows how it looks when the second coat more or less dried - yes, you can still see a green tinge, sigh. It will definitely need a third coat. The next shot shows it fully dry...

...and that I am still having problems painting over that darn green paint! The current plan is to third-coat the lower walls, then turn the heating on high for 3-4 days, while sanding/touching up the areas where the green paint will NOT let the new paint settle. If that does not work, I will be hollering for help from my friend again!

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Jumping aside from the spare-room saga and inevitable regular pantry tidy-ups, here is a shot of some DIY work I put in outdoors. The fence was bending and swaying in the wind - so I originally attempted to nail it to the roof post. This failed.

I therefore removed the nail and put in a screw - which was not at the right angle to go through both pieces of wood, but by inserting a second screw and winding wire around them both and the roof post, I did the job! It no longer makes me concerned that the fence will fall out in a gale - PHEW!

Back to the saga of the spare room. After the horror of the paint peeling, I took a breather from painting to sulk. I then got on and did some more. The above shot is poor re color, as it is a musky grayish mauve colored pink with a paler shade below.

The color comes out a bit clearer in my next shot - of where I got up to on the second or third day of undercoating the walls. More paint peeling was going on though. I decided to try one last time to sand down the areas where the paint was peeling, with the plan to re-undercoat the patches before top coating the whole walls over - though I may actually need 3 coats on these troublesome walls, or more drastic action...

However, I can say that I am feeling more positive about the room now and that my vision of it completed lies not too far away - although in reality, it might take far longer than originally expected. However, it is something I can plod away at when I am not busy at the allotment plot or out with friends.

GARDEN GLIMPSES 27

It was wet and windy weather, so not suited to trimming the grass around the edge of my plot nor doing a winter dig over or weeding my fruit bushes. My response was to make a decision. I decided to take my compost bin to the allotment plot so that I would have two there.

I figured I could empty it out, carry it down, and carry some of the compost along on further trips to re-fill it. With two bins on site, one lot of compost could rot down properly while I filled the other bin with veggie/fruit scraps, mown grass, horse muck, and whatever other items I felt like adding - such as nettles, comfrey, card, brown paper...

I began to scoop out bags (which is where the pile shown in my last post comes in)full of the half rotted apples/compost from the home bin to do this task and stashed them in the poly tunnel next to my leaf mould collectives until I had carried the empty black bin to my site.

There ended up being around 2 dozen bags, though. I carried 3 loads (2 bags per load) along on the same day I emptied the bin and carried that down, and have slowly been carrying 2 or 4 bags down since on days I popped to my plot. The contents included this pair of mushrooms - which I would have eaten if I knew they were edible ones - but as I was unsure, I popped them in the compost tub instead!

I made use of a £5 voucher and double points weekend at Wyevale to buy a patio greenhouse. My Dad used to have one similar, but he didn't brick it down, so it kept blowing over in the gales and ripped. Once all the compost from the polytunnel is taken down the allotment plot, I hope to erect the greenhouse on the patio and fill it with seed trays - ready for February!

I also purchased garden twine, 2 tubs organic food/fertilizer, and some fruit-netting. I am ready for spring, as the first frost hits!