As you can see, the exteriors of the windows were (like almost everything in the flat!) in dire condition.
I thought this was going to be a relatively fun job, because I had NO idea how much work was involved! First we had to strip off the loose old paint (well, what was left of it) Then we had to repair some of the wood that had rotted/been damaged after years of rain and neglect. This involved getting rid of the old, rotted wood, and then drying what remained that still had years of damp embedded in it. André laughed at me when I suggested that my hairdryer would speed the process along - but actually, the technique worked really well !
Once the wood was dry, we used wood filler to repair the wood where it was damaged. Then we sanded the filler down once it had dried.
Finally, after all of this we were able to bring out the brushes. The first step was a coat of primer on the exposed wood, and then, once that dried, finally, fresh white paint.
As for being painted into a corner (literally)? No, it didn't happen, because I did figure out that I needed to climb back in through the window before painting the sill, and paint the sill from the inside! Being stranded on the scaffold would not have been much fun...
