Painting shock

BD-1 minus 8 and we finally managed to get the paint pots, brushes and rollers out and into action. "It's very exciting" said Debrah. I'm not sure the prospect of an intense paintathon over the next week is my idea of exciting and judging by the amount of tiredness and wrist aching complaints this evening I suspect the excitement has subsided somewhat.

But paint we did, all of us - well not 'the genius' because he doesn't do painting - but me and Debrah and Christian. Putting on the first coat of paint always makes an amazing difference to the look of a room - even if it is just undercoat or the first coat on the woodwork - suddenly after weeks of plastering and sanding hell it feels like the home stretch. Of course, as you are happily slapping the paint on you come across bits that could have done with a bit more plaster or a bit more sanding and you think "the genius won't be happy with that" and then you think "I don't bloody care what he thinks - I've had enough - this needs to be finished and when it's painted and done nobody will ever see the bits that aren't perfect because it's an eighteenth century building with a million and one flaws which give the place it's fabulous and unique character" - or words to that effect punctuated with a few choice blasphemies.

You will no doubt gather from that comment that there is a certain amount of frustration in the house. Deadlines from us and estimated completions from him have come and gone and come and gone - was it ever so with builders, no matter how talented or knowledgeable. If you want a job doing on time you just have to do it yourself - and so it was that Debrah and I were still painting away long after 'the genius' had gone to sit in the bath and relax.

Mind you, he had given himself a bit of a shock during the afternoon - quite literally - whilst wiring in an extractor unit in the ceiling above the shower he had managed to earth himself from the shower head to the wire cutters that were attached to the live wire that he was cutting. He never turns the power off for simple wiring jobs because he knows what he is doing - errr right. I was up on top of the scaffolding in the main room and Christian was down below but plugged into his ipod - we heard a very unusual noise that sounded to me a bit like a dog growling at someone - but neither of us could place it - Christian plugged in and a bit vague about it and I couldn't be bothered to come down from the scaffold to investigate because it would be too much effort just to look out of the window at a dog. So it was we both ignored the sound of 'the genius' electrocuting himself - I think he was a bit miffed about the fact that no-one came to see if he was alright - but actually neither of us had any idea what had happened. Sorry mate!