Tag: DIY

Feeling blue…..

I’m feeling ‘Off-Black’, as Farrow & Ball might style it.

'Off-Black'. From the Farrow & Ball shade card.
‘Off-Black’. From the Farrow & Ball shade card.

Or possibly rather ‘Down Pipe’: that’s grey-black to you.

'Down Pipe' from the Farrow & Ball shade card.
‘Down Pipe’ from the Farrow & Ball shade card.

My camera’s gone bust.  Just as I was coming to the most photogenic bits of a walk yesterday, and just as I was about to take a shot of some unusual fungi to show to a mushroom-geek friend, my camera declined to switch on.  Or off.  The toggle simply wobbled about a bit.  It’s going to have to be sent away for repair, and I shall be camera-less for…. oh I dunno, a couple of weeks I suppose.  I can’t even download the photos I’d already taken, and it’s all going to be somewhat expensive.  And how can I write a blog post without photos, hmm?

To add to my woes, we’re just getting to the final brush-strokes of decorating our bathroom, to which our landlords have recently offered a make-over.  I can’t show you our efforts here, which may be just as well, because our previous well-known lack of enthusiasm for painting and decorating has turned into sullen resignation.  Let’s just get it over and done with, ASAP.  I’ve even been heard to say I’d rather take in ironing to earn money so someone else could do it.  And if you know anything at all about my lack of enthusiasm for ironing, you’ll know that things are really serious.

So this is all I can show you of the bathroom.  The shade we are covering the walls in.  It’s called ‘Cat’s paw’.  Nothing to do with cats, apparently: ‘Cat’s Paw is not named after the animal but after a complicated knot. The perfect name for this colour as it is the darkest accent for the often knotted String and Cord’.  The theory is that this naturally cold room will feel warm and nurturing on those cold winter days which seem to be marching towards us already, even though it’s mid-August.  We like it, anyway, and perhaps by the end of today we’ll be able to pack up our paint brushes, fold up the dust sheets, and give the lot away to anyone who’s made enough  to be planning a painting project any time soon.

'Cat's Paw' from the Farrow & Ball shade card.
‘Cat’s Paw’ from the Farrow & Ball shade card.

Man on a warm tiled roof: woman on a warm tiled roof

Malcolm at work.
Scarey at the top!
Don’t look down!
Don’t stand up!
This is our enemy: moss.
And lichen.

It’s five years since we were last up there, and it shows.  That roof of ours needs a good clean-up, just as much as any other part of the house, because if we don’t…. it leaks.  You’d think that a good coat of grime and lichens, with a thick crust of moss nudging at the edges of the tiles would provide a nice impenetrable and insulating covering to help the roof in its task.  But no.  Rain soaks into the moss, and wiggles its way into the roof space and then our attic.  It’s not managed to break through yet, but time is not on our side.

We have a routine.  An early breakfast, so we can get as much done as we can before the sun gets too hot.  By quarter to 8, we’ve rounded up old pointy knives, wire brushes, lengths of thick wire, softer brushes, knee pads, kneelers, a bottle of drink: and up we climb onto the roof, via our roof terrace.

We’re neither of us wild about heights, me especially.  But it’s not quite as scary as it looks.  The pitch of our roof is quite gentle, and we can move about more safely than you’d think, though at considerable damage to our knees.  We try to divide the roof into work zones and fail.  It’s easy to go off piste when one tile looks so much like another.  But we both scrape and scratch and pry away at springy cushions of moss, yellow puddles of lichen, odd tile chippings.

A couple of hours on, one of us will say: ‘It’s getting hot.  Had enough?’  Neither of us needs asking twice.  We each sweep our section of roof carefully, round up our tools and put them away, ease our aching bodies into the shower….. and flop, fit for nothing much at all, at least until lunchtime.  Malcolm at least is allowed this luxury.  He’s 73, long past the age at which most roofers begin their careers.

We’ve had three sessions already.  Might a fourth see the job done?