It is common for houses in Paraguay to be brightly painted rather than left as bare brick. This gives a bright and colourful feel to many neighbourhoods.
To keep houses clean and bright though they must be regularly repainted. The heavy rains wear the paints away and the bright sunshine bleaches out their colours.
My home was last painted about three years ago and so now is very much in need of repainting.
The standard way of painting a house in Paraguay is to turn it into a solid block of a single colour.
I though wanted something different from the norm. So instead painted each of the four side of the house a different colour.
The front was pink, the back was orange. Then one side was green and another blue. This gave me a truly distinctive home.
In addition once all the walls were finished I noticed there was a fair amount of each colour remaining. To ensure that did not go to waste I used it to paint patterns and designs all around the walls. More and more designs were added until all the paint had finally been used.
Not knowing whether I would be able to paint even the simplest of artworks the first of the designs were marked out first in pencil and then painted. After I while I got the hang of painting pictures. No more careful marking out in pencil. Just a quick sketch in a notebook.
Now when the house is repainted all those artworks will be gone forever and I will have a blank canvas to work upon.
As yet I don’t know how and in what colours I will be painting. It very much depends upon what is available in the local hardware stores.
All that is certain is the the colour scheme will be as different from the current one as the available materials allow.
If possible though I will seek out the darkest colours I can find. That way the wall will take longer to show the dirt and longer to be drained of colour by the sun.
Another thought is to then buy something like white with which to add artworks to the walls. One thing of which I am certain is that the walls will not be solid blocks of a single colour.
Then before the painting can begin the wall must be cleaned. Dirt and flaking paint removed. If that was not done then some of the fresh paint would quickly fall from the walls.
The cleaning is possibly harder work than the painting. The only way to do it is to rub the walls down with sandpaper. Done by hand and quite labour intensive.
I tend to clean and then paint one wall at a time. That breaks the monotony of sanding walls for hours and hours.
The painting itself I do enjoy. The walls are ten metres long and so there is a lot of wall to be painted. I do expect though to be able to paint a wall in a day. As long as there are no interruptions.
I work my way along the walls with my ladder and paint pot. Starting at the top of the wall I paint a section and then work my way down to ground level. Any paint the drips down the wall is painted over before it dries.
Then once a section of wall is finished I will move the ladder along a metre or two and start the whole process again.
Working this way once the painting begins it takes no time at all for colour the creep along a wall and then around a corner onto the next section of the house.
With Paraguay being a land the alternates between hot sunshine and heavy rain the weather also effects how the work must be done.
To start with the walls must be properly dry before the work begins. So not within a couple of days of the last downpour. Then the forecast needs to be checked to ensure there are enough days on which to do the painting before the next one is due.
Then while I am painting I pay close attention to the sun. Trying as far as possible to remain working in the shade as the travels across the sky.
These are all things I have learnt painting the house previously. So none cause an incontinence.
After the walls and finished and the artwork added my house will again be the bright house up on the hillside. Its distinctiveness will be visible from a distance ensuring the house remains well know throughout the neighbourhood.
I will then be able to enjoy a bright colourful house for a few more years until the next coat of paint is required.
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