I am currently on staycation, no thanks to the pandemic although this break was indeed a welcomed one – just to be away from work. Three weeks after the last post about the house, everything is now complete.

At the end of the last post, I alluded to some painting to the exterior of the property. The painting job was initially for the bay windows at the front of the property but it made no sense to just do that as there were other aspects of the house’s facade that needed attention. Luckily, with the scaffold in place, the gable at the front of the house was repaired and had fresh coats of paint.


The bay window frames needed more than a fresh coat of paint as they also required treating. The decorator burnt off the flaking old finish, filled the wood, removed the silicone seals and replaced them with acrylic, given an undercoat, had more filling… I think he spent a good three days on the bay window for each floor, before doing the final coats of asphalt grey (matched with the grey on the French doors of my dining room that opens to the decking at the back) in gloss. And the front door undergone the same process – the absence of a wet patch on the front doormat after some rain was the proof of the pudding. I was also told that this should last ten years!


Since he was also doing the cornerstones and headstones at the front, I requested if he could do the same for the side and rear of the house. As I intend to replace the windows on the first floor at the back, he didn’t need to paint the window frames but to just do the kitchen door as well.

Everything was done in about two weeks (he actually worked on the weekends too!). There was some drama in getting the scaffolding dismantled, but once they were, I was able to take some photos to see the house in its glory. My immediate neighbour was well impressed and as you can tell, the decorator got himself a job with said neighbour’s property. Not only that, I also remembered a couple of passersby stopping by asking if the decorator could do some jobs. He is his own advertisement!

To finish off, did a bit of cleaning up (the decorator cleaned as much as he could) and the front of the house looks so much better without strands of silicone and flakes of chipped masonry paint.

Better late than never, and to tell you the truth, having this done now makes good sense in the greater scheme of things.