Darker blues. Shares very much needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017;
all rights reserved.

So Wings did this today [up in the photo]. You can't really tell from the image, but he climbed up a stepladder placed on the stairs, and he did all the edging around the ceiling and walls, as well as getting the base color coat on that corner of the ceiling I couldn't reach. His balance is much better than mine, obviously. 

He also got the second color coat, the darker blue, on the ceiling across the board. You can see it faintly up there. You can see it better here, along with one of the other walls I sponged with the second (metallic silver) coat today. That silver is much more visible than it was on the earlier walls because of the angle of the light:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

I also got part of the way around the east wall, but I had to stop when I reached the part of the stairwell that would connect up with his edging. Tomorrow, I teach him how to randomize the sponging, and he'll do those two sections with the silver; then we'll get to the darker blue sponge-off final coat for them.

Which is what I did on the south wall today:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

This is probably about the best shot for showing the difference in shades, which isn't saying much; the angle of the light reflects off the silver undercoat in such a way as to turn all close-ups gray rather than beautiful shade of dusky violet blue that it is. But the color is perfect; exactly what I wanted. When I can get the other walls done, it'll show better in the photos. Tomorrow, with a little luck.

That was far from all we did today, but it was the only thing we did on the house. The kid helping Wings with some of the labor accidentally let the horses out, twice, and so I spent part of my morning wrangling them back in. Meanwhile, at the end of the day yesterday, Shade had a bad reaction to something — we think now that it was a wasp sting — and not only had the head shaking and puffy watering eyes, but she kicked the hell out of Ice (apparently in retaliation for said sting, having seemingly assumed, since he was nearby, that he was somehow responsible). She's fine today, but it took some doing to get her that way.   

Darker blues today. I'm beat (and just not feeling well across the board), and we're no further toward being able to bring the crew back on Monday than we were yesterday. We need to make some large-ish sales this weekend, which now means "tomorrow," and we're running out of time. As I said, we can't ask the guys to come back without knowing we can pay them, so we really, really need shares. The rest is all cut and paste; here are all the links:

• First, to donate, the PayPal link is here. 
• Second, for sales (which we really need to make, and I'll be highlighting some of his high-end stuff on the site this week), the link to Wings's site (preferably with a testimonial, if you have some of his work), because sales are gonna keep this thing rolling. 
• And finally, the link to our wishlist (which badly needs updating), with an emphasis on the Lowe's gift cards, because those are what will help us pay for all the stuff that will make this place liveable, like a water heater and flooring and so forth. A note here: I really do dislike Home Depot, but they have a terrific tile that would work for pretty much the entire downstairs (except the bathroom) that's less than a third of the price of a lot of what's comparable from Lowe's. It's the kind of thing that we can't rationalize spending so much more on, given the differential, and so I'll be adding Home Depot gift cards to the wishlist, too, much as it pains me. [Okay, so I just checked; you can only buy Home Depot gift cards through their own company site, so they're not going to be on the Amazon wishlist. Think of it as a virtual virtual wishlist.]

I have more work this evening, and I have to get on it. I have to find a way, among other things, to squeeze blood from a stone (or at least money from nothing). Many thanks and much love to everyone.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.