Giving Our Homes A Face Lift - Soon To Be Newly Weds, Spruicing Our NestS.

After being an unpaid apprentice to my Dad for a good thirteen years of my life. Yes I started at the bottom rung, so to speak as I was a shorty, actually I still am the shortest in my family. Wait I was taller than my Mom, but there again everyone was taller than my Mom, she was five feet two and a half inches tall, I am still not sure was this with or without high heels.I digress.

I would, as I say stand on the bottom rung of the ladder, and assist by passing him the desired brushes, rollers, and wiping clothes as he painted. Sometimes I would even be asked to wipe a spot off the floor, this was rare indeed, as my Dad was a very careful painter. I learnt that skill from him.

We were betrothed, and had found a perfect apartment in the centre of Johannesburg, upon signing the lease, we were granted our first month, rent free. With this bargain, we then used that month to paint and decorate the entire flat.

This was a perfect arrangement, so at the end of our working day we would have a quick supper, at either of our parents home, borrowed tools also scrounged any surplus useful items that we could, or would need to tackle that nights project.

Let it also be known, that on a couple of weekends, we actually picked up a couple of hamburger, chips and guava juices, all for fifty cents, or even, another occasion, some fish and chip shop, fish and chips for a whole twenty cents, I firmly recollect the we had at least three meals which we supplied during that month, hey we were after all, getting married!

We would tackle our tidying and cleaningup, and redecoration of our nest, which was a very large, flat, with a large lounge dining room, kitchen, bathroom and of course a large bedroom.

All things went like a dream we decorated, trimmed, revarnish, had all the walls painted to suit our taste in colours and accesories. The furniture had been delivered, we had removed the sundry items, from her bottom drawer, the pots, pans and general kitchen appliances, all installed and waiting for us, ready for after our marriage. We did not use any of the furniture or anything else in the flat, this was all reserved for when we got married.

Then, finally all we had to complete was the painting of the window, and door frames. This all needed to be done with enamal paint.Not a daunting task and still two working nights to do it in. The night before the nuptials, I would be sleeping alone in the flat, on the floor in a sleeping bag.

We masked the windows, the area around the doors and were ready. Well I picked up the one liter tin of paint, carefully, I took a step back, my balance was slightly wonky, my foot landed on the newspaper covered floor at a strange and funny angle, and down I went landed flat on my backside.

Do you realise what the floor coverage of a liter of thick enamal is, this is excludeing bits that landed on the toilet door and surrounding walls, well I can tell you, it was about nine square yards, our entire passageway from the lounge to the entance to the bathroom and quite a bit of bathroom floor, then also some of the bedroom floor also had splurge of white decorating the way in.

I rolled onto my side and cried out in pain,agony and frustration. There were also tears of anger and frustration on my soon to be bride, as she surveyed that damned awful mess that was created in a single instant,

Well we worked away that night and late into the next with what amounted to three liters of paint thinners, as we scrubbed snd mopped the floors, me with a very tight lipped, with a partially swollen ankle, well strapped and numbed with sseveral disprins every other hour, this helped me hobble through that ordeal.

My future wife was not very endeared to me for that fatal slip, no indeed those nights were interspersed with curt, instructions monosylibc answers and expressive grunts.

We had brought a thermos of coffee, after the final area had been cleaned up, we sat and drank our coffee, suddenly we both burst out laughing, as we saw the funny side of it as well, funny ha bloody ha, I am still convinced we were high by then, but it broke the ice and we had our wedding within 48 hours.

That night alone in the flat, I had to open up only the bathroom windows to get rid of the smell of thinners, as the joys of fully serviced flats, the cleaner had been in and gone over the entire floor area and scrubbed it again, then polished it up to a high gloss. He was rewarded with several old pairs of shirts and jeans.

Nobody knew about the strarped ankle at the wedding. It went off very well, and every one enjoyed the day with us.

Well within nine years after we had moved into our house, we finally had a green garden with some very respectable shrubs, trees as well as some nicely established annuals, as well as two nectarine trees, one which we had planted, the other had seeded it self and was the better beare of fruit..

Now we desperatly needed to have the outside of the house painted. Not a problem, again we trundle off too visit both sets of parents in order to once again borrow or annex some or most of those additional tools, and accessories required for this mammoth task.

Our house was built on a rocky ridge, those of you that have read Green Garden would realise that this could be fun, what with all the rocky levels, added to that, the builder who was living next door had moved to the Cape, taking his scoffolds with him.

Friday evening, of yet another long weekend earmarked for house maintainance we hosed, the entire houses walls down, much to the amusement of our nine year old son, who quipped to his little sister, "silly, they think the house will grow bigger", corney I know but true.

Well Saturday morning arrived and we, the wife, myself and the unwilling junior apprentice got started, we had cleverly decided to start work on the lower levels of the house as those faced the street, also were the easiest to access with ladders.

We carefully masked all glass of the entire window area with sheets of newspaper, and now had to burn all the lights in the house to see! The Apprentice, decided this was too much running around for him, so off to his friends house to play there.

Next open the paint, no not me for some reason, this was handled by the wife, decant into paint trays and off to the first wall, by the by , an old tarpaulin had been laid across in front of the wall to be painted, we had learnt something from somewhere I think.

I started painting at the top corner and across the side wall, my line ended about halfway down the length of the wall, so off we went carefully painting and cutting in. Once a section was completed, handed the paint tray down and then climbed down and then carefully repositioned the ladder, so as to tackle the next section of the wall. The wife would then move into where I had just been, she then painted the lower section.

This continued the entire Saturday with a break to feed the kids and ourselfs, plus a couple of smoke and tea breaks. The front and the one side, the easier of the two had been down by the end of the day.

A well deserved take away from the local roadhouse was collected and devoured while we listened to a drama broadcasted to us by Springbok Radio, which was an English come Afrikaans Radio Station. TV was then still in its infancy, we had not bought a TV set as yet.

Sunday, dawned bright with clear blue skies, a near perfect day, except for one small matter, both of us were stiff, ached in parts that you never knew could ache. I am sure that even all of our aches had aches.

Still a good soak in a hot bath, with a cup full of sea salt in the water, helped to alleviate at least some of the aches, not all but at least the important ones that would be used for the day had eased. Once breakfasted and coffeed, we were tanked up and ready to go. No Sunday School, so we gave church a miss and concentrated with the task at hand.

We inspected the front and completed side, and too our relief found the with the exception of a couple of corners these walls did not need a second coat, did the required touch up.

A cup of coffee and a cigarette, over a long discussion on how to tackle the side of the house. So we decided to quickly do the Servants Quarters, as well as the Wendy House, and the back wall of the house. We switched for the day, I would be at ground level and the wife on the ladder.

With the unevenness of the back garden I would hold the ladder, while the wife painted the upper reaches, we moved along and just did the upper reaches of the back wall. Then with the paint roller wedged into a seven foot length of galvanised pipe, I finished of the balance the wall, good grief was that a strain, muscles ached and the poor old shoulder felt as if they were dislocating with every upward or sideward push of the roller and what now felt like a twenty foot lead barge pole.

Still, had now worked out, partially, how to handle the other side of the house.The day continued and the breaks for coffee and lunch took that much longerBy mid afternoon the kids were bored and wanted to go to Grannies, for a swim and to watch TV, they started to nag, being weak, lame, tired and really felt for the coolness of an ice cold beer, I was easy to convince.

So after a quick bath, we descended on my parents, who as luck would have it they had planned a braai (BBQ) for the evening meal, the kids swam, I had my beer, or two, and the wife her glass of wine they watched TV I cooked the meat, as always, and a pleasant afternoons visit was had by all.

The only thing now left was that long side wall, a very very long wall and at one point the wall was only twelve feet high. Still that was tomorrows problem!

Monday, not so easy to get up the energy for that wall, Completed the touch ups required on the rest of the painting.

Now we really had to work very carefully, the house was on a ridge, and the ground sloped down a quite a steep angle, at least 40 degrees from the yop corner down to the bottom corner, So we panted the top corner first, using three ladders we tried to create a scaffold to work from, this would not work. So we painted using lead barge pole, this nearlly worked for all of it.

There was a stubborn triangle of old paint at the apex of the roof, the two side measure about three feet each, so it stood out like rather a sore thumb. So after lunch and having a reflective cigarette, I watched our one cat while it walked up the side of the roof, balancing on facia board, eureka! a solution to our problem.

So armed with paint tray roller and a brush, I climbed quite easily onto the roof, at its lowest point that was just over six feet, walked across the IBR sheets of the roof, lay down and proceeded to, no not paint, but to scream and curse. The silver painte IBR sheeting, after being exposed to something like seven hours of summer sunshine was by then hot enough to fry an egg, and there was I, in only a custume and a pair of sandles, busy trying to fry myself, with out cooking oil. To say I was off the roof and into a cold shower as fast as possible, is an undersatement, I did not even take off the sandles or costume. Minor burns over 99% of the front my body, with only my face and feet that were spared that fried ordeal. There I sat covered in calamine lotion, as I muttered away to myself as the wife had completed that final bit of painting.

The injuries were only minor and by the next morning you could not even see any thing, but it was very very sore, as well as being a lesson.

DIY Not For Me