I went back down to the paint shop for a big fat brush, I had googled it and it was necessary. I went on my own and got there without turning off to the left! The paint man and I spoke in a bit of this and that and a smattering of Google and discovered a few extra bits of information, importantly that I should put the paint on in vertical strokes (the internet suggested criss cross, they were wrong). I came home with a special paint for the cupboards as well. I am ready for this. But maybe tomorrow. Meantime, I stop for a coffee and a wholemeal croissant (slightly healthy).
I awake from an interrupted slumber, took a deep breath (and had I been Catholic I would have made the sign of the cross) and opened the largest bucket of paint. It was thick like clay. I removed a quarter of it and added 500 ml water and I stirred and stirred and stirred some more. I got my huge paint brush and started on the bathroom. I have found a dodgy ladder in one of the old toilet rooms on the staircase. I hope it will hold me, my body is tense from getting up and down wondering if each time will be my last but it is surprisingly sturdy!
It was easier than expected. After a while I got into the swing of it and moved on to my bedroom, learning as I went that if I was really careful and applied it horizontally first and then vertically, the coverage was superior. I was, in fact, becoming a lime wash Queen. I was also becoming adept at using the huge brush to cut in (painter's terminology for doing perfect edges along the roof and floor line) instead of having to change to a smaller brush for that job. But because I have more paint left and I worry that because it has the water in it something might happen if I don't use it all, I have to keep on painting until the last drip has been absorbed by the brush. I am officially exhausted but happy.
And then strangely obsessed. I start on one of the larger rooms, the lounge room and as I sand back a couple of patches that are peeling, I discover that beyond the white, is a similar colour that I am painting! By the third wall, I wonder how I will finish it. Everything is sore, my fingers from clutching the brush, my feet and thighs and a few twinges have occurred in the hip area. I stop for a break but I have to finish it, this time I run out of paint and the process begins again. I make it as mindful as possible, as I add and stir and now with no measuring just a feeling of what it should look like. And then, I have some left over and so I have to start on the kitchen as we have to move a cupboard against wall because I start on the hall. Then I am truly buggered as they say.
(So I forgot to mention that every room in the apartment is white and I am a woman who likes colour, I have gone for subtle colours but have finally got rid of the pink in the bathroom so am happy. For the rest I've gone for a cappuccino colour which strangely looks different in every room).
After that, the daughter and I go for a celebratory Spritz. We meet up with the font of all knowledge and he shakes his head that we are Spritzing at 3.30. He doesn't do that until the witching hour of 6.30. We don't care. We see old men having a quick red wine at 10.30 in the morning, we don't feel compromised in the least.
I tell the daughter I will have the next day off but then...the kitchen looks a mess and so I start, just one wall, then another, then precariously balancing on an old ladder to paint above the cupboards and I'm done! And then half of my Ikea order arrives and I can't help but assemble a small lounge for the kitchen. It's a 23 degrees day here on Easter Friday and the moon is full, sitting above the balcony and just as I finish the assemblage, the villagers come down from with candles, going through the twelve stations of the cross that are here. They stop outside our apartment and sing. It is eerily beautiful.
The week has disappeared in a lime wash finish. Tomorrow, we're off to Austria.
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