Flakiness

Paint is supposed to stick to what it is painted on, and it usually does. Mostly. But in our new flat, there are patches where the newly applied paint dries and flakes to a perfect eczema finish: annoying, especially when just planning to apply the second coat and move on to another task. The solution I've found, not one on the internet, is to scrape off the diseased patch, spray with 'vandalic' paint, fill with polyfilla, spray again, then hope that the new emulsion sticks. So far it has.

Another mini-drama was when I unscrewed the rose of the 'lustre', a strange, almost sculptural tin light fitting, so as to be able to paint right up to the rim. Since wiring here is pretty solid, single core copper, quite hard to cut with pliers, I thought it was safe enough to leave dangling whilst the paint dried. Some twenty minutes drying later, the better half had just walked under the light fitting when, !CRASH!, down it came. Luckily the electricity was not on, otherwise there would have been a !FLASH! as well, and a whole blown fuse box.