Day: June 15, 2026

It’s been getting really hot inside my house during this latest ‘canicule’ – around 30 degrees Celsius most evenings – and one of the reasons for this is the absence of its shutters. I removed them nearly two years ago – see HERE as they were getting rained on at the start of a wet winter and becoming streaked with dirt. I intended to paint them the following Spring but as usual, events got in the way and they’ve remained where I put them, securely under thick covers under the trees in the front of my house.

That all changed today. I’m unable to do anything in my garden (except watch Isward roll up and down making a beautiful job of mowing my lawns) as the new battery for my excavator, which was promised for last Saturday, did not arrive and won’t do so until tomorrow, and I can’t fix my main computer, which is still not functioning as I’m waiting for a disk that I need to be delivered. So I decided that this would be a good time to start on my shutters.

All I’ve done today is mount them back on the house where they can stay until I can get each pair down again in turn in order to remove their fittings, thoroughly clean them, paint them and put them back up again. They can stay there now as we’re expecting a hot, dry summer and hopefully I’ll get them finished before the weather begins to change again in the Autumn. They didn’t do at all badly under the covers. Rodents managed to get in as they do everywhere but although they took in nut shells, acorns and stuff like that they didn’t make any nests or do any damage to the shutters themselves.

Putting the small shutters up wasn’t much of a challenge as they aren’t very heavy to carry or rehang. The large ones for the full height double doors in my living room were a different story. I remembered what I job I’d had taking them down and humping them round to where I stored them and wasn’t looking forward at all to the job of carrying them back again and rehanging them. I even wondered if, after nearly two years, I’d be able to do the job alone but would you believe it, I managed humping and hanging all six of them (3 pairs) without too much difficulty. Maybe I’m healthier and stronger now than I was then 😀

I have to say that I’m pleased to see them back up again. They make the house look more ‘finished’ again, even though they’re not painted, as the images below show.

Tomorrow I’ll start the job of painting them kicking off with the small ones on the front of the house, which are not affected by sun and with which I’ll then replace the ones at the back as I go. And hopefully if I work in the front of the house under the trees I’ll be able to do it without being affected by the heat, which is expected to get up to around 40 degrees Celsius over the coming days. I’ll possibly even think about finishing painting them before I get back to my excavation work, but I’ll see how things go. In the meantime, here is the first pair stripped of fittings ready for cleaning, lightly rubbing down and painting.