Day: June 20, 2026

We’ve had another scorcher today so not a day to be working outside. But much as I would have liked to be out early getting some excavation work done I decided that my top priority was to try to get the hardware and software rebuild of my main computer done and with this in mind I’ve spent the last two days doing that and painting shutters. The latter has been a thankless task. I’m usually pretty good at hand-painting and proud of the results but painting these two small shutters has been one of my worst painting experiences ever and I shudder that I’ve got several more pairs to do.

I’ll never touch another can of Dulux paint ever again because as I said in my previous post, based on this experience it isn’t what it used to be. What should have been a relatively straightforward and easy job – painting large flat surfaces laid horizontally – has turned out to be a nightmare as the paint has meagre coverage and covering power and even after two top coats the undercoat was still showing through in several places. I refitted the furniture earlier this evening and found that some patches painted this morning were still not dry which I find unbelievable. The final results after yet more retouching are shown in the images below. The shutters don’t look bad but they don’t stand up to close scrutiny and I’m not proud of them.