The Wanderlust Lady and the Door to Door Salesman - 27

January 28, 2013

 

On Monday, as the weather had continued good, I decided to make a start on the outside woodwork, and first paid a visit to my friendly paint dealer in Marple.

“Hi Tom.”

“Hi Stan, how're you doing?”

“Fine. I thought I'd make a go on the outside woodwork as the weather seems to be set fine for awhile. What do I need for that, and how much?”

“How big is your house again?”

“ It's a small semi-detatched bungalow. Five windows, two doors, no windows upstairs.”

“Well you also need to paint the fascias and verge boards. Does it have a porch?”

“A very small one with plastic sides.”

“What's the state of the paintwork at the moment?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is it peeling off?”

“Some places it is.”

“Well, you'll have to clean all that off first. You probably won't have a machine for burning the old paint off, but it is best to use something like that. You'll have to sandpaper it to remove any remaining gloss sheen and have the paint smooth. You might have to put putty in any of the windows that are loose or have putty missing. Did you notice?”

“I never looked. But remember, this is to make the house more saleable – not to make it perfect.”

“Are the downspouts painted at the moment?”

“I think they're plastic, and black, so I wouldn't think they needed paint.”

“If there are any leaks in these, that can be sealed with silicone, and you should remove any algae.”

“I’m really only interested in the windows and doors.”

“Is the wood rotten anyplace?”

“Don't know. Don't care.”

“Well, you should apply some wood hardener and allow it to dry before you put in some filler and sand that down and then you can paint over rotten wood. All the paint should be weather shield. You need to apply primer, then two coats of undercoat and one coat of gloss.”

“Is that all strictly necessary?”

“If you're dealing with raw wood, yes. If there is still some reasonable paint on, you can skip the primer and only have one coat of undercoat and the one of top coat. And remember that when you paint windows, they have to be open. Same with doors, and don't forget the top and side edges.”

“You are making me regret that I asked you.”

“Okay, let's see. You absolutely need some undercoat (I'm assuming you're skipping the primer) some gloss paint and some sandpaper. I suggest you get 5 litres of each of the paints. That will come to £35 with your discount.”

So I handed over the money, and took the paint and pushed the sandpaper and brush cleaner into my rucksack.

I still didn't have a ladder, and knew there were bits of the house that I couldn't reach with just a chair. But I'd worry about that later. First of all, I'd get going on the windows. I opened the living room one, washed it down, and did a bit of sandpapering to remove the peeling bits of old paint and smooth off the surface. Using one of my smaller brushes, I started with the undercoat. I managed to smear quite a lot of paint on the glass itself, so spent some time cleaning that off. On the next one, I thought I'd follow Tom's earlier advice and put masking tape around so I wouldn't need to worry about being so neat and tidy. But all in all, the painting went on pretty smoothly and certainly improved the appearance, even though this was the undercoat. As I was painting, I noticed that the man from across the road had driven up and was coming over to see what I was doing.

“You painting the outside as well then?” he said, rather unnecessarily.

“Yes. But I'm only doing it to make it look better for selling it.”

“You're the bloke who told me about the lady who lived here being run over, aren't you?”

“Yes.”

“I heard a story that you robbed her and went to jail for it.”

“I had to do some community service, but it was only a small amount of money, and I got a discharge so I don't have a record. Anyway, the people who inherited it hired me to get it ready for selling. They know the whole story and they trust me. So go and tell the rest of the neighbours that.”

“What you do is your own business,” said the man, looking somewhat affronted by my tone.

“Sorry, but I'm tired of justifying myself to people. I'm doing this painting job really cheap because I liked the old lady.”

“But you stole from her anyway.”

“She was already dead by then. If she'd have been asked, she'd have given me the money. We were friends.”

“Okay, like I said. That's your business. I'm really only trying to be friendly. I was going to ask if you wanted to borrow my ladder when you get around to doing the fascia boards. I'm in the house restoring business myself, but just in my free time. I have a full time job as well. But I have the gear for doing outside painting and such like.”

“Thank you, that's very kind of you. I'll call over when I'm ready for that.”

“Okay. And if you're looking for extra work, I might be able to throw some painting jobs your way.”

“No kidding. Well, I have to stick with this until it's done, and that will probably take a few weeks, but then I'd be interested. Thanks very much.”

“No problem. See you. I'm Fred by the way.”

“Stan,” I said, as we shook hands.

And he went back across the road and into his house for lunch. I finished painting the window and went in for mine too.

After lunch, I had to decide whether I wanted to finish off the one window with top coat, or go on and do the undercoat on the rest of the windows. If the weather turned, I didn't want my hard work on the undercoat to be wasted, so I decided to do the top coat on this first window, and then that job would be completely done, and I wouldn't need to worry about the weather. The top coat went on, using a new brush, having cleaned the first one in white spirit for next time. The paint went on smooth and shiny and looked a treat. I took quite a lot of pride in my work, and if I was hoping to get other jobs out of this – like the guy from across the road said – well, it would be best to make it look as good as I could.

I completed the first window and spent the rest of the daylight hours washing and sandpapering the other windows and doors. Then I put some masking tape that I'd found in Minnie's kitchen cupboard drawer, around the edges of the windows that I intended to do  tomorrow, if the fine weather continued, which according to the radio, it was expected to do.

It was pretty dark by 4, so I went inside, and decided to carry on with painting for another hour or so, doing the skirting boards all around the house. I didn't bother to sandpaper, and only did one coat of gloss, so it wasn't really done as it should have been, but it was okay. I clocked off at 6 p.m., made myself some supper and then went out to the pub down the road to see if I could make some friends.