Weekend Work

So what do you do on weekends? 

This past weekend I completed some painting that I’d started a few weeks ago. 

I learned a long time ago that, yes, women can do anything that men can do, BUT… smart women let/get men to do it for them. I seem to have forgotten that lesson but re-learned it in a hurry. 

While painting isn’t exactly rocket surgery, it is tiring! But hubby was overseas when I started (that’ll teach him to go away without me), and so I pushed on through. 

We’re both gobsmacked at the difference it makes. The white wall created such glare that we often had to close the curtains in the house in order to not need sunglasses indoors. Yet we didn’t seem to notice the cause of the issue. 

I’d been watching Gardening Australia and the featured story totally blew me away. The details (as I remember them) was of an I.T. guy who’d attended a concert in a  “park” which was in fact a botanical garden. He immediately had a epiphany – he wanted to live in a place like that. So he gave up his I.T. career, studied horticulture, bought a property, and transformed the land into a botanical garden. It was noted that his house was painted black. He said it was his wife’s idea, because with the garden being almost like a tropical rain forest, with tall bamboo and the like, the last thing you wanted to do was to draw the eye to the house. Painting it black made it disappear in the background. 

Now firstly – I thought black would be a little extreme in our case, and luckily for me, they didn’t have black, they (Builder’s Warehouse) did have a range called Severe Weather, and I went for the colour of Thunder – which as you can see is a dark grey. 

And we are extremely happy with the result. You’ll immediately see how the colour of the strelitzia “pops” against the darker background. Yeah I kinda hacked the gooseberry bush in order to get to the wall behind it. And yes, I started with the easily accessible walls. The others have not-easily-moved plants growing on or in front if them. Even so… the amount of glare that this darker colour cuts is amazing. No more need for sunglasses indoors – and I can even open the curtains. 

I need to get more though… I’ve finished the initial 5 litres (using the last bit around the side of the house which also creates glare into the office) and we’ve decided to paint all the perimeter walls. (Well, I have… hubby is unlikely to actively stop me 🙂 ) I prefer using the 5litre tin, cos I can pour into the paint tray from it easily (I think I’d battle with a 20 litre). Only thing I might do differently… is to get someone to do the hard work for me. Any volunteers?