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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it's fucking impossible to decorate when you have small DC?

63 replies

YellowYoYoYam · 19/05/2015 19:42

We're trying to decorate our hall. I optimistically thought hey, it's just the hallway, it won't take too long, not that much upheveal. What the hell did I know?! It's got 5 doors in it - that's 5 doors to paint 3 times, 5 door frames to paint 3 times, and 5 doorways to cut it around 3 times. It also has a wooden staircase that needs painting. There is now nowhere for our shoes, coats, hats, double and single buggy etc. so these things are now strewn about the rest of the house. Going for a walk or a day out involves madly scrabbling around the house piecing together mismatched shoes and whatever coats we can find. Doesn't matter if it's wet and warm, if all we can find is DS's padded snowsuit, that's what he'll be wearing.

The DCs are two and one so there is no chance we could do it when they are awake. Painting for two hours every evening once they're in bed means it's taking fucking forever. We shatter ourselves on Monday and Tuesday then can't face painting again until the weekend. We stupidly started this when DH has resumed his summer hobby of cricket and we both had work commitments.

Also, DH is so slap dash, I went to my mum's for the day with the kids, he did two final coats on the woodwork and there were still, after three coats of paint, parts of the wood that had never been touched by a brush! Aargh!

How do other people manage this? Please tell me AIBU and there is something glaringly obvious that we're missing.

OP posts:
DisappointedOne · 19/05/2015 19:44

I've managed it by........ not decorating. DD is 4.5. Might do a bit in the summer.

Roobo · 19/05/2015 19:45

Pay a decorator! Grin

JugglingLife · 19/05/2015 19:46

It's soul destroying isn't it, never again will DH and I take on a project, our DCs are older now (13,11 & 7), but I feel your pain. Is it out of the question to get a decorator in? Otherwise you need to send DH out with the kids, preferably for the whole weekend and you crack on with it. My DH is a terrible painter, he gets it everywhere other than where he should.

BoyScout · 19/05/2015 19:46

I'm going to assume you can't afford a decorator, which would be my first option.

Otherwise, take it in turns at the weekend while the other looks after the kids? Or do it every other evening, so you have time to relax?

BoyScout · 19/05/2015 19:47

But YANBU, it is a nightmare.

redcaryellowcar · 19/05/2015 19:47

I think you are not at all unreasonable, our hall desperately needs decorating, I'm trying to persuade dh that we need a decorator as I can't imagine we'll ever get round to it, and last time I painted a door in supposedly quick drying gloss, it still took two days to dry. Not great with small people who don't understand 'don't touch' ideally I'd gets decorator in whilst we are away for a week.

PuppyMouse · 19/05/2015 19:47

We just did our hallway and landing - walls, staircase, skirting boards and new carpet. DH did all of it while I watched DC and then I went a teeny bit nuts at how long it was taking and sent DD to grandparents' so I could help. Worth it now it's done but I don't think there's any easy way other than family and friends to help take DC off your hands Hmm

winkywinkola · 19/05/2015 19:48

It's impossible to do anything with dcs that small!

WhenMarnieWasThere · 19/05/2015 19:48

I used to rope my little DDs in to help strip the wallpaper at their height when they were old enough to be safe and not eat the paper , which they loved.

Except that once the new paper was up, DD made for it again with the stripper tool again and couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her 'help' again.

Grin

It's much better now they are older. They can help tidy, store their own things in their rooms, help paint safely and they can reach higher too. :)

HomeIsWhereTheHeartIs · 19/05/2015 19:49

I did my hall, stairs and landing in 2 full days. One day DS was at nursery. The other day DH took him out all day.

TwiceAsNiceAsIceAndaSlice · 19/05/2015 20:03

The only way is either for one of you to take dc out/away for a couple of days while the other cracks on with it, or offer the dc to a kindly grandparent or two for a day+night+following day and you both crack on with it.

Or wait til they are both at school Grin

0utForAWalkBitch · 19/05/2015 20:06

Oh god YANBU it's fucking AWFUL. We moved into a do-er upper (mostly cosmetic no major work) a year ago and have made very little headway. We have a two year old and I'm 34 weeks pregnant and I t's so hard getting anything done.

My DH is completely not motivated to do any of it, it's so frustrating. I've often gone to visit my parents for a few days with toddler and left him to get on with the DIY and arrive back to find he's made very little headway. ARGH. I get so much more done than him when he leaves me to do it but I'm too preg mag now to do much.

We can't afford a decorator so I just have to put up with it!

Sunflower1985 · 19/05/2015 20:11

We managed to paint the best part of our house when we moved in. Ds was not then walking. Since he became mobile it has been 1.5 yrs and we have done nothing. Yanbu

Monkeygirl28 · 19/05/2015 20:12

It's a nightmare doing up a house with children, we did it by me taking 2 children (3 and 0) out and then my husband doing the bulk,,,it's pretty hard work, you feel that'sits a constant grind, I remember being pregnant with no kitchen and washing up in bath! Makes it feel so good when its all done, my dad helped us a lot and came to stay for a few days..he is retired though,....mainly divide and conquer its not forever

redskybynight · 19/05/2015 20:14

The hall is the worst room because although it's small it's fiddly, and you need access to it every day! If you do something like a bedroom you can just block all access to it, and leave all your stuff out ready to go - plus large expanses of wall are much quicker to paint.

DeeWe · 19/05/2015 20:16

Oh no it's not impossible. Mine helped.

The white footsteps round the outside of the porch door, and the white horseshoe imprints down the corridor belong to the fairies and unicorn that visited us. It wans't anything to do with ds stepping on the paint pot lid and then walking down the corridor nor dd2 dropping her shoe in the roller paint and trying to get it off outside. Grin

Original poster
YellowYoYoYam · 19/05/2015 20:18

Thanks everyone, you've made me feel less incompetent. I'm feeling a bit less emotional about it now, I think we'll try to pencil in a free weekend and ask grandparents if they wouldn't mind looking after the DC. They know we're struggling to fit this in but hopefully it just hasn't occurred to them to offer and they would be delighted to have them! Fingers crossed!

OP posts:
dementedma · 19/05/2015 20:19

Half way through doing the sitting room...am sorely tempted to just shove all the furniture back in and give up. It taking forever...

LongDayAlready · 19/05/2015 20:20

We moved into our house 7 yrs ago when DD1 was 8 months old. 7 years later, with DC 7,5 and 3 and another on the way, we have repainted 2 rooms and had to get a decorator in to do them. There are fingerprints everywhere and they look set to stay a few years yet.

On the plus side, at least it doesn't matter if they continue to trash it.

Worst thing is that retired NDNs moved in at same time as us and have identical house layout. There is always a 'here's what you could have had' moment if we pop over.

One day......

Original poster
YellowYoYoYam · 19/05/2015 20:22

Also Grin at all the helpful children. I was spurred on to start the hallway in the first place as DD helpfully began stripping the wallpaper.

OP posts:
museumum · 19/05/2015 20:22

I did our hall for selling in the evenings. Three long long evenings from ds bedtime till late.

We move in a month and in the new house the kitchen and chimney breast in the livingroom needs painting - will be evenings again I suspect :(

Phalarope · 19/05/2015 20:23

Oh god yes - I naively thought I'd get loads of DIY done while on maternity leave. I now have a semi-derelict hallway and a 20-month-old who this evening licked the ancient mould that was lurking beneath the anaglypta wallpaper. She said "mmmmm!" and did it again.

Cheby · 19/05/2015 20:24

We decorated DD's bedroom when she was 6 months old, had to do it I between feeds and she was going to bed at 9pm every night and waking every 2 hours or so. The second she went to sleep we started decorating, frantically trying to put wallpaper up before she woke for a feed. Took us 2 weeks and it was a tiny room. She didnt move into it until she was 15 months in the end, then we moved out when she was 18 months old. Was hardly worth it!

Seeingthebeautyineveryminute · 19/05/2015 20:27

Decorating seems like an impossibility. Cleaning is also a pipe dream!

PaulineFossil · 19/05/2015 20:28

Ours is in an awful state. Can't imagine we'll get much done before the children go to university. They're preschoolers now. It's impossible and I have the nagging feeling that even if we did by some miracle manage it, one of them would suddenly discover drawing on the walls.