The Unrelaxing Long Weekend

I thought it would be a brilliant plan to make a dent in the painting. Long weekend. Perfect time to do projects around the house – or so hardware store advertising would have me believe. Obviously the marketing geniuses for those advertising campaigns don’t have toddlers.

A sweet little bundle who looks up at you with her big eyes when you are in the middle of cutting in and says ‘Mummy! To-urn! Pu-lease’. Very difficult to resist. Also very difficult to impress on her that the paint brush doesn’t need to go all the way into the paint tin, or that there are some things that she just can’t help with. Tantrums ensue.

So, Daddy was relegated to outdoor duties with Riley (planting Sunflowers, playing in the sandpit, swinging and trampoline). Anything really, to give me some time with the painting. And for the record he hates it when she asks to go on the swing. Trust me, it gets pretty boring after awhile.

So now, I have made a dent in the painting (although not as much of a dent as I’d like) and I begin to wonder if I’ll actually finish the job in my lifetime. Because I’m working on the easy bit. The hallway has no carpet, no furniture and is generally out of the way. The fact that I’m currently doing the easy bit is deeply terrifying. I’ve still go the play room, the kitchen and the lounge room to go. I think if I had about 10 long weekends in a row I might have a hope in hell.

Whatever people pay painters, it’s worth it. I have DIY amnesia – when I had an investment property with my sister and we re-painted, I swore I would never submit myself to that kind of torture ever again. Yet here I am, painting, again. Still, looking at the 70s fake wood is more than I can bear. If I have to look at it for too much longer, I’ll lose the will to live. So I guess I have to take these frenetic bursts of DIY motivation where I can.

In the end it will be worth it. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. The fake wood will be painted antique white. The lino will be replaced with blackbutt floor boards and the beige-void wall colour will be replaced with a pale pastel green. Picturing that is officially my happy place.

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Tagged as: family, holiday, home, renovation, toddler