Fate

Today when I went to put the second coat of gloss on the top of the fireplace I realised it hadn’t dried all over. It was patchy and tacky in places. Brian came to have a look and said he thought it was either due to something on the surface underneath the paint or the paint was too old. Either way we needed to take it off and start again.

Brian had a scraper with sharp edges to hand, so he got stuck in and started the job. It was a bit demoralising at first, as we had hoped to get the fireplace finished today. We got the worst of it off pretty quickly, if messily, then I started on it with the rotary sander, which made light work of the rest of it. I suggested we wipe it down with some wire wool and white spirit, then buy some new paint tomorrow. I hoovered up the mess we had just made, and Brian started to clean the top up with the white spirit.

We felt like we were going backwards, so I thought he was trying to make me feel better when he said ‘You know you always say things happen for a reason’. Well, when things go wrong it’s often, I believe, because there’s something better coming, but I wasn’t sure that was the case here. ‘Yes’ I replied reluctantly. ‘well, I think we should wax it and leave it like this’. Im not sure I took it in at first, but when I looked at it I thought, you are right, that’s exactly what we should do. So once again my trust in fate was proved, and we now have a beautifully shabby-chic fireplace. I love the outcome.