The Bright Outdoors

The best ‘before’ picture I could find was this one. It is just a shame there is not more of the wall to look at. But you can see from the picture that it is all very bland. Since I bought the deep green plants I really noticed how ‘BLAH’ it looked. So I decided that the front wall of the house was getting a ‘make over’.

After Miss Independents ears were pierced yesterday I bought the brightest orange (yellow based) paint I could find. It was fresh and bright and it was exactly what the veranda needed! The name won me over almost as much as the colour ‘Quince Jelly’. How, ‘citrusy’. I painted a ‘sample’ on the wall yesterday afternoon and when I woke up this morning I went straight out to see if it still appealed. It didn't 

It looked washed out and as though it would need three or four coats to get it to look as vibrant as it did on the paint chip. I needed to paint the wall white first. Which meant I needed to go back in to town and buy the cheapest exterior white paint I could find. I had even considered buying interior paint but realised if I cut corners it would end up wearing out much earlier than the ten year guarantee that came with the extra ten dollars difference.

I made it home and started to paint the white undercoat after moving the furniture and setting up news paper and a drop sheet. The difference between the almost ‘dirt’ colour and white was amazing and the veranda seemed longer and taller almost immediately. I even considered leaving it white, but soon remembered that we live in the ‘sticks’ and have seven kids, that was a stupid idea.



So I alternated between white undercoat and orange. Littlest Miss played happily in her play pen and aside from when she had her lunch and a sleep she was a VERY good girl for me. Mr Cheeky was as well although I did have to remove a small paint brush from his vice like grip on three occasions and have to quickly wash down a stool before his ‘help’ dried.

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I can’t help but assume Littlest miss is wondering why mummy hadn't finished her play pen BEFORE she started on the wall.



By the time the kids had made it home on the school bus I had done half of the front of the house and was exhausted. I started to clean up and put the furniture back so when I get up tomorrow, after the kids have left for school and Mr Cheeky and Littlest Miss allow, I can finish it off. I still have to ‘cut in’ around the doors and windows but I will not do that until the whole wall is finished. I have to paint the ‘display shelf’ the same colour as the wall so it is not as noticeable as it currently is. Then after a nice long rest ( a week I think so I can catch up on actual house work * shudders*) I shall sand and stain the veranda and My Beloved will actually have time off to build the ‘fake’ posts to make the thin 4x4 hard wood posts seem much bigger and chunkier.

After that we will be back out the back to carry on with the back yard. Because we have a plan to add an out door kitchen ( knowing My Beloved there will probably even be a sink out there as well) I have agreed to him adding his hooded B.B.Q to it instead of insisting on a fire heated B.B.Q because as he said, he is the one who cooks with the B.B.Q and it is much easier. But in return he MUST build me a fire heated out door oven. He agreed to do that as long as he could have a ‘bar’ area, which I agreed to as long as there was a small ‘garden’ in the middle  and that he built the out door lounge and fire pit where I wanted, the shape I wanted and in the style I wanted. We managed all this agreeing with out arguing debate and we are both happy.


Emma xx