Some painting tips (for those interested)

Important painting tip: when painting fresh unplastered walls, you always need to have a sealer base coat to start with. Otherwise the lime in the plaster will react with the paint colour which might have unpleasant results next time.

We had used up a whole weekend at the start of our painting project to paint this base sealer coat throughout the house. It was a bit dull because it was not the actual paint colour yet... so quite demoralising to paint something without being able to see immediate tangible results.

BUT today we are thankful that we did put the base coat on.

You see, as we were packing up and preparing to move out of our current house we were renting... as responsible tenants we tried to clean up the place and do some touch ups here and there. There was one particular corner which had some bits of plaster and paint peeling off. The problem was there before we came, but we decided to try and mend it anyway.

So hubby peeled away some bits of paint, which came out in small but rather scary layers... and then underneath when he touched the plaster layer, he was shocked to discover that the plaster underneath felt damp. We scrutinised the corner and could see that there was no base coat between the paint and the plaster... hence the nasty result. And the house isn't very old either, probably less than 6 or 7 years old.

Anyway, we had a tub on this cool stuff called 'Easi Filler' which we used at our new house to fill in cracks and imperfections in the wall. So we brought it back to touch up that corner. It's quite interesting material. Although it's very pliable, it has a somewhat powdery texture which makes it tricky to use.



Hubby slapped on the stuff in the corner but he couldn't be bothered to spend time moulding it and shaping it properly... so I finished the job. It was quite fun! I am getting quite good at this DIY stuff I must say.