IT'S TIME FOR A REAL POST

Are you tired of reading the old, not updated self-congratulatory posts of Richard's Bass Bag where he comments numerous times on his own post to get the comments number up?

Are you bored and unengaged with Robert's latest post?

Here are the highlights: *

"Inspired by Peter I've ordered a pair of shoes from Skechers.
They seem a bit cheaper than his because I want to walk rather than run.
I had an unusual request for violin rosin today.
Petone ponderer's sewing machine belt is slipping.
I gave her some old rosin but not the good stuff from Richard.
I spent the day painting.
Why are there so many whites?
In the end I had Sue, Petone Ponderer, and her friend Kevin trying to judge if my ceiling white is white.
We all agreed it looked purple."

 Well, wait no longer. Here's a real post from 'up north'.

We've had quite a run of bad weather up here - most of which I missed by being in Wellington but the last week was horrendous. High winds rocked the house to the point where I (with help of mate Rod) took down the shade sail that covers the western side of the deck. Rod, when he and his wife were renting our house while we were overseas (7 years ago now), took the shade down for the same reason and cleaned the lichen off it. Lichen, in coastal areas settles on trees, window ledges, weatherboards, roofs and, in this case, the shade sail.

Lichen

I'll borrow Rod's water blaster and get this stuff off.

Heavy rain during the week meant that I couldn't paint the new weatherboards, do the washing or mow the lawn.

All bad but - today when I woke at 7.30 (sorry Robert) it was a beautiful sunny day. Blue sky, no wind, warm and sunny. Beauty! I dived out of bed (after having a cup of tea and reading the news and checking emails and blogs) at about 8.30.

From there on - after breakfast (weetbix, hot water and milk and a couple of spoonfuls of the delicious cereal additive I prepare and keep in the fridge which is a mixture of All Bran, applesauce and prune juice - it was all action.

I put through a large wash for hanging out and, while that was going through I set up everything I needed to paint the weatherboards.

Last month, along with some other improvements we had builders replace some dodgy weatherboards on the house. They applied undercoat to them but painting was recommended within three weeks. I was worried at the rain we've been having and was itching to get the painting done.

I got out the two Gorilla ladders and the extendable plank and applied the first coat to the boards.

The Gorilla ladders are great as it's easy to adjust the height and for the slope. Here I have them at a low setting and raised them later.

I left the first coat for two hours before applying the second and, in the interim mowed the lawns. Well, to be honest I couldn't get the bloody lawn mower to start so used the excellent E-GO weed-eater which is easy to use and did a good job. I brought in the washing before I did this as, empirically, I learned (from an ear bashing from The Old Girl) that mowing the lawn next to washing on the line is not recommended.

I also painted the extra weatherboards that I had made up. I will keep these in storage in the basement in case any further replacements are needed. There were a couple of tricky bits on the house to reach where the scaffold set-up couldn't reach.

I went up the ladder and dealt to as much of the new boards as I could reach, even using an extension I made by taping the paintbrush to a broom handle but, there a still a couple of spots that need doing. Next week I'll go to Mitre 10 and buy one of those lightweight painting sponges and attach it to the extendable house washing contraption we have.

The result was better than I expected. During the week I went to RESENE paint shop taking with me a piece of the old weatherboard. I trusted them as they successfully matched up a ceiling sample for when we had the new architrave fitted around the attic ladder installation.

I note that Rober has had trouble with white paint - remember his blog post? - I SAID "REMEMBER HIS BLOG POST?"  - REMEMBER HIS BLOG?



Never mind, here's a reminder. Robert said in his latest post:

"I spent the day painting.
Why are there so many whites?"

In this case he's right. There are so many whites in the world of paint. I thought that our house is painted a sort of grey colour. When I got the colour match done and produced the paint pot stated:

LINEN (G80- 020-097) Lumbersider Waterborne low sheen WHITE

I guess that I can only suggest that Robert takes an original sample with him next time. From my experience, trust RESENE (a paint advertisement allusion there).



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Now I was going to bore you - regale you - inform you of my dinner choice tonight after a fulfilling day, but, as it's still cooking and I'm not sure how it will turn out I'll let The Food Curmudgeon post on this tomorrow.









* I lied about the highlights. That was the entire Post!