Wednesday 4 October 2023
I had a ridiculously productive day yesterday, though a less productive element was staring at the banister I had painted in five different colours but which is now – well, shabby chic, distressed or, my term, horrid. Due in large part to my not preparing the banister properly before painting it, within weeks areas of the paint had peeled off to reveal the horrible slightly shiny original paint. It bothered me, though less than its current look bothers me. I had had a chat with Mitch about it and he’d suggested sanding it and using a good base coat, the sanding element which he completed on Sunday. However, in my head that meant just doing the bare patches. I can appreciate that that is a bit of a short cut approach and merely plastering what would become more and more wounds. But it took me ages to paint those colours. Anyway, it’s now partially stripped of paint. Chris and Mitch promoted its shabby chicness. I can’t for a minute think either of them likes it. Not that I’m the kind of person to only have guests over when the house is perfect (we’d never have guests over if that were the case), but I have two friends, Luke and Hugo, visiting for the first time today and Lindsay from Thursday. It’s most unsatisfactory, though I’ve definitely appreciated how much better the whole staircase looks with colour.
On that theme, I have already marked out where I’m painting next, the lower half of the stairwell. It will be a very dark blue. My plan was to paint the top ‘ledge’ of the skirting board a mustardy-yellow. I would paint the whole of the skirting board but that would mean an edge all along the carpet and I can’t be dealing with that level of precision. I hate paint on carpets. This is all rather disturbing to me though, I like to think I’m not that fussy.
There is strong risk of my being at the start of a phase of daily whining about being cold. I still haven’t acclimatised. However, I quite often work from a massive beanbag on the floor of my office. I brought another sheepskin rug up from London (where something that warm is not necessary) and it is now on the beanbag along with a spare duvet. It’s the best snug spot in the house. Unfortunately, I have realised it makes not napping during the day a bit more of a challenge sometimes. Which is why I made myself go out for a walk when I was contemplating a nap yesterday.
It hasn’t started raining yet but it’s forecast to rain. I’m just hoping I can get to and from Selkirk today to pick up my friends, though we may end up just staying in Selkirk, I don’t know. The road flooding more than it seems to usually flood is a big problem especially when the detour is roughly, at best, an hour and a half’s drive.