Tuffy-Cat helps us to paint the ceilings: A little slideshow

An inquisitive Tuffy-Cat comes to investigate what we are doing

Last weekend, we finally tackled the painting job we had been procrastinating over for months, if not years: our ceilings.

When we moved into our house some 7-8 years ago, I had (very foolishly, in hindsight) insisted on using eco-friendly paint.

Although I concede that it was a pleasure to paint with – even though we could only choose from a very limited range of environmentally safe pigments – and really easy to clean the brushes and rollers, the downside is that the darned paint turned out to be sooo eco-friendly that it encouraged the proliferation of mould in our habitually quite cold house.

And as anyone will tell you, mould in the house can cause serious health issues, especially in people who already have respiratory problems.

What goes up, must come down

In the intervening years, we have re-painted almost all the inside walls – not a fun job, I can tell you, particularly if you have to move heavy furniture out of the way. However, we didn’t re-paint the ceilings at the same time – we quite simply ran out of steam.

As a rather wet winter merged into a still rather damp spring, we decided to procrastinate no longer.

As soon as we had a free weekend with good weather, we picked up a 5-litre container of paint with mould-remover from the hardware store, cleared the bedroom, hallway and kitchen as much as possible, and got started.

This is how we spent our weekend:

1. Take down curtains, and tidy away everything that could get spattered by paint. Remove all movable furniture from the rooms to be painted.
2. Remove light fitting in bedroom and kitchen – discover the latter is badly rusted, due to water condensation from somewhere? Wires are badly corroded too. Drive to nearest hardware store and light-fitting place, buy new light fitting, discover that wires in roof need to be checked first, put fitting on hold until climb into roof can be attempted.
3. Scrape off all flaking paint from ceiling and vacuum clean thoroughly.
4. Apply diluted Jik solution to mouldy areas and scrub clean.
5. Apply Painter’s Mate to hairline cracks along the edge of the ceiling.
6. Thoroughly clean the wooden floorboards in the bedroom, particularly where the bed usually stands.
7. While waiting for the Painter’s Mate to dry properly, have something to eat. Wash up dishes and tidy up everything once more.
8. Send hubby into roof to sort out the darned light fitting.
9. Pour paint into small container, find one thin brush for the topmost edge, and one thicker brush for the ceiling border, where the roller can’t reach.
10. Stand on tippy-toes on the tallest chair in the house, streeeeetch up and barely reach the edge with paint brush. Apply paint, as far as you can reach. Climb down off chair, holding onto wall for balance. Move chair along.  Climb back onto chair – repeat until all the edges of the room are done. Continue with the hallway and the kitchen until your arms and legs ache.
11. Help hubby to climb down safely from inside the roof.
12. Pour paint into tray for roller… and let hubby paint the ceiling. 😉
13. Apply touch-ups to missed bits.
14. Clean the roller, the tray, the small container and the brushes. Try not to get sprayed by paint in the process. Tidy all painting equipment away.
15. Clean floor and walls where fridge usually stands. Move fridge back into place.
16. Vacuum clean bedroom, hallway, kitchen and lounge for the umpteenth time this weekend.
17. Hang up curtains once more.
18. Clean vacuum cleaner – the most suck-y job in the whole bloomin’ world! – Cough a lot. Look pitiful.
19. Dive into shower to remove thick layer of dust.
20. Convince hubby to pick up some nibblies from the shop for sustenance and reward, and to make tea on his return.
21. Sigh with bliss at the sight of brilliantly white ceilings. Make mental note to paint lounge and office ceilings too… as soon as the aching muscles have recovered.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And for those who have problems seeing the slideshows, here is a gallery too:

Tuffy-Cat comes to check out what we are doing

Almost all the furniture – except this chair – has been moved out of the bedroom so that we can paint the ceiling

The base of the bed has been moved into the centre of the room

And Tuffy immediately claims her spot in the sun

She wraps herself up in the frilly-sheet

I suspect that she may be acting all cutesy for the camera!

This is one contented kitty

Peek-a-boo! Can you see her watching me?

Siiiigh… she pauses

And then continues to play with the frilly-sheet

Noo! Retract your claws, Tuffy!!

Happy exhaustion…

You talking to me? Huh? You want this spot?

This is aaaaalll mine… MY sunny spot.

Richard is applying Painter’s Mate to the hairline cracks at the edge of the ceiling – a messy, yukky job

Applying Painter’s Mate to the kitchen ceiling too

Tuffy doesn’t like the smell of the ceiling paint, so she moves into the lounge, where she finds a handy pile of bedding

If I can’t see you, then you can’t see me, she seems to say

After I have finished painting all along the edges of the ceiling, Richard uses the roller on the large areas

An inquisitive Tuffy climbs up the ladder for a closer look

And then realises she has to climb down again…

It’s not so easy to be upside down!

But she makes it safely down – phew!

The whole house smells of paint, so Tuffy seeks refuge outside in the garden

On the prowl…

Tuffy inspects the garden bench

At the end of a hard day’s work, a cat has earned her rest too