Wake up at the back there!
You may remember that the outside was left looking like this:
or rather, after we had grouted it, like this
Well that was November 2015. Last year, if you recall, summer didn't start until August and I was firing on only 3 cylinders, so nothing really got done, especially as I don't see the sides very often, it's my neighbours who have to put up with it.
But I didn't want it to go through another winter with no paint, so a week or two ago I went over Ray's and borrowed his scaffolding. It used to be his Dad's, so goodness knows how old it is.
The first thing I tried to do was smooth the grout. I assumed it would sand out, but it is like granite. An angle grinder might do it, but a sander certainly won't. So unfortunately, close-up it is not very pretty, texture-wise. But it is what it is.
The other problem is that this is a timber building that moves, and grout doesn't take movement very well. A lot of the grout has cracked and some of it has fallen out altogether. So I've had to rake out what I can and caulk it instead. I should have done that in the first place, I think.
So on Saturday I assembled the scaffolding (myself) and painted the RH wall (myself), then we had some rain, but yesterday and today I have painted the LH wall. No Ray, no mates, I did it on my own. The hardest part was moving the scaffolding around, TBH. The very fact that I felt I could even attempt it is a measure of how much better I feel these days. 3.99 cylinders, at least.
And to prove it
As you can see, I still don't exactly relish being up there.
So this is what it looks like now
If I'm honest it really needs a third coat, but I've had enough. It's not a dining room ceiling. And anyway I've run out of paint.
Looking at those photos now makes me wonder why I didn't stagger the cempanel boards, but heigh-ho, that's the way it is.
This might actually be The End.
