Just as I predicted

I got myself across fairly early this morning to Leroy Merlin to pick up another 12 litre can of sealer-undercoat plus three more rolls of 3M blue masking tape. I think the latter must be a big money-spinner for 3M because they’re far from cheap and can’t cost a lot to make. When I returned I finished my breakfast and than got going continuing masking ready for painting.

Today I was aiming to finish masking all of the doors and the whole of the floor in the living room and corridor. It was only as I was doing it that it became clear just how monumental a task this was. Because I’ll be spraying down to what we Brits call ‘skirting board’ level ie the tile plinths that go all around the walls, I have to be certain to prevent any paint blow-by onto the tiles. This is doubly important because the masking applied now will be used for both the undercoat and the coloured top coat later on so it must be securely applied with a good seal all round.

It was a back-breaking task, literally because my back was so painful every time I stood up from crouching down and working at floor level that I eventually had to call it a day in the early evening before I’d managed to complete the whole job. There’s just a small area of floor left where the living room joins the corridor and I still haven’t masked off the main front door yet as that will be the last thing I do before I start painting.

I did remove all of the protection from the front door though that prevented it being damaged while all the building work was going on and I’ve also not finally sealed the bathroom and kitchen doors as I’ll need access to those rooms right up to the time I start spraying.

The first sheet of floor-covering film that went down.

The main area of the living room ready for spraying with the floor in that section totally masked off.

Looking towards the small area of floor still left to do.

The underfloor heating manifold masked up. I’ll have to decide what to do about the wall area behind the pipes later, as I will also with the wall behind the mass of pipes in the ‘cellier’ (utility room).

The corridor ready for spraying with its floor all masked up.

I’m very confident that the living room and corridor ceiling and floors will all have a coat of sealer-undercoat by tomorrow. The ceiling and coving will not be top-coated though, as it’ll be necessary to top-coat the walls first, which will mean masking the ceilings off.

All the advice is that when spraying finishing coats of different colours, it’s easiest to paint and mask off the vertical wall surfaces and then paint the ceiling rather than the other way round and after thinking about it, that’s the way I’m going to do it 😉

As I type this I’m being eaten alive by tiny black mosquitoes as I am every evening at about this time. I think it’s because the caravan is under the trees at the bottom of my land and may also be because I leave a watering can with water close by. That’s for the little dog from Chateau Malbec who comes to visit me most days and loves to drink out of it and I’d hate to upset her by leaving it empty.

But whatever the reason it’s another big incentive for me to move out of the caravan and into the house as soon as possible 😕