We had a pocket door fitted in the lounge a few years ago and never got round to painting the plastered wall, mainly because we wanted to change the colour scheme of the whole room ‘one day’. It just never seemed to be a priority.

The girls have been asking us recently if they can paint the walls a lighter colour and we’ve been saying that we would prefer to get someone in to do some decorating after lockdown and get them to do some other DIY jobs as well. The girls eventually persuaded us today to let them paint the one plastered wall in the lounge.

I really didn’t want the mess of the paint everywhere and thought about the small areas of sanding down that needed doing as well. I also really felt like doing some gardening as it was a nice day. It was one of those moments where I could have either got stressed or decide to go with the flow. I chose the latter.

We tried a compromise. My husband said that he would supervise the girls doing the sanding and painting, and I said that I’d be available if any of them needed anything. They needed me quite a bit at first to find a number of things: old sheets for the floor, old shirts to protect their clothes, sand paper, paint, brushes, a pot to mix the watered down paint in (for the plastered wall), a plastic jug for measurements of the watered down paint, and some masking tape.

I didn’t think that we had any white paint and was about to go out to the shops when I found some in the garage whilst I was looking for the other items.

We also found some tester pots of paint and one of them was the kind of colour we wanted for the whole room. The girls painted a square on the wall to see if it looked any good and thankfully we all liked it. Hopefully the shop still sell it!

They did a great job of painting, and my husband and the girls all cleared up afterwards.

I’ll be social distancing in B&Q tomorrow to see if I can get a tin of the chosen colour paint (Victorian Lace). The girls are very excited about painting the whole room. If we had the paint today, I think they would have carried on into the evening.

A little bit more time in the garage

After looking for the paint and other bits in the garage this morning, it got me motivated to go back in there, after I’d done some gardening. I spend an hour or so sorting out the shelves where I’d found the paints.

I also found an aerobics step under some boxes. My mum and dad gave it to me when they moved house a couple of years ago. I stepped up and down on it to the motivating music on the radio.

Dinner time

Sometimes it’s easier to get a takeaway when you’ve been working hard all day, but we didn’t succumb to that temptation today. My husband and youngest daughter cooked chicken with egg fried rice and it was done in no time. We all said how much better it was for us then getting a takeaway (and cheaper).

It’s been a long day.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra