The Return of Handy Andy

Handy Andy came back last week.
After guttering had dislodged following last Christmas' round of earthquakes, and with more rain forecast, this repair was a priority job.



Pruning the wind-blown weeping willow wasn't on my 'to do' list...

but clearing dead wood during a dry spell provided us with much needed firewood.

Luckily, I have a plentiful supply of nuts for a visiting squirrel to snack on.

Andy spent quite a lot of time up ladders. The roof leaks in known places, but new leaks revealed themselves in the heavy rain, partly I suspect from the constant structural shifting that this house has endured over the past two years.  But putting things into perspective, all of these leaks can be dealt with for the time being, with buckets and well-placed patches, unlike many severely quake damaged houses.

The main reason for having Andy back, was to work around the edges of the EQC refurbishments.

After Andy had revealed the under-layers of paint on the big window frame in my bedroom last year, I wanted the distressed effect to follow through in other painted detail. 

I don't have any experience with this kind of decorating and the balancing act between domestic living arrangements and the abrupt timing of EQC work means that some of that detailing is new paint over undercoat. Not much depth of colour there! So Andy experimented with the leftover Ash accent colour, brushing it over sanded-back Hippy Blue, then rubbing it off with a cloth. He also painted the French window's cream surround with Ash first before painting it blue, and then scraping and sanding back. The effect is close to, though brighter than the aged softness of the inspirational window frame.

Andy's final, fabulous touch to the room was to come up with a  treatment for the inner door. The original solid blue was just a bit overwhelming for the newly dainty room. 

So he sanded and scraped and trimmed the door panels with Ash grey, replaced a single coat hook (three were just an invitation to clutter), moved my bed back in, and began preparing the lounge for the next stage of EQC work.

After all that (not to mention cleaning the chimney, repairing roof capping, tending to flat tyres on my garden fleet and any number of menial household jobs),

It was time for some relaxation... 

Before heading back to Wellington.