PHASE 2 BEGINS

Well, I'm all recovered and back on track now and have spent a relentless day once again stripping flaky whiteness off the second two metre section of the roof.  I'm somewhat shattered but think I made good progress today, and my cleaning disk and drill are now my new best friends.

SHINY, SHINY, SHINY!

After nearly a week of rain, wind and being injured out, (unfortunate incident involving a flipflop, some mesh fencing and a rather sharply edged jetty, ouch), both myself and my paintbrush are firmly back in action.  The third coat of gloss has now been added to the first section of roof, so at last the trusty gazebo has been removed to show off her lovely new shininess.  I also managed to get the second coat of undercoat on the cabin sides so if you stand in the right place, little boaty looks better already, lol!

DINNER WITH RAYS

A week or so ago, we had what must have been the hottest day of the year so far, lots of heat, no breeze and generally no air.  Not my favourite combination I have to say.  Still, the weather managed to make amends in the evening when things cooled down with a gentle, warm breeze.  We were able to sit out on the deck and have a candle lit dinner while watching life on the canal bob by, right up until bedtime.  Now that is one of my favourite combinations.  And then, just before the sun went down, we were blessed with a view like this:

SHADES OF HER FORMER GLORY

As watching paint dry is like, well, watching paint dry, I got bored and completely threw my glorious plan of starting at the top and working my way down out the window.  As I stood evaluating my painting skills, my gaze gradually shifted to the cabin sides and I was off again, sander in hand, and in remarkably little time, I had removed the top couple of coats to expose Lily's original colours 1/3 of the way down the cabin. Go me!

However, this does mean that now I have to paint that as well!

GREEN IS THE NEW ... WHITE?

Four days later and two coats of primer and two coats of dark green undercoat completed, wonder if I'll still be this keen in a months time?  

Lovely blobs of primer, looks like the Earth from space?!

Followed by the undercoat...

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK, THE PAINT IS COMING OFF!

Well, the time has finally come for the outside of Lily to get some very overdue attention.  We have decided to be scrimp on the cost as there are still sooo many other jobs that need to be paid for, and attempt a repaint ourselves!  This will no doubt prove to be yet another lengthy learning curve but needs must and in a morbid fascination kind of way, I'm kind of looking forward to it.  So, paint and all manner of other paint related bits and bobs bought, I am ready to start stripping Lily's very tired and peeling roof.  Due to time, weather, (this will have to be attempted outside), and the fact that our only shelter is a 2m squared gazebo, all prep and paintwork will have to be done in 2m sections.  This will take a long time to finish, I know, but it does mean that we can take our time and have breaks in between.  

Day one starts with stripping the dodgy paint off the front end of the roof.

By the end of day three, and several tool re-thinks, the first section was sanded back and de-rusted.

VERY TASTY!

Less than a month since my last post and my baby cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries have turned into these . . . !