When you go to the outdoor market to buy white wash it comes in a dry powder. I've never bought that and don't plan to do so now. It looks very messy. Kind of like taking ground up chalk, pouring it in a bucket and then adding water until it looks like milk. People also buy big brushes - BIG brushes, like 8 or 10 inches across and a couple inches thick. That is what they paint their ceilings with. My tutor assures me that she does this every year and she loves the way it makes her flat smell - very fresh and clean.
Mel and I went to the nearby Stroi-ka (means 'little construction' - our local Home Depot but without all the help and advice). Mel called Sergei before we left and asked him again what the word for 'primer' is because that word is not in our Russian/English dictionary. He also asked him what the word for 'white wash' is, but Sergei didn't have a clue what white wash is so couldn't tell him. Mel explained what you do with it and then Sergei told Mel he now knew what it is, but couldn't remember what the word is in Russian, his mother tongue. He is in his early 20's - makes me feel a LOT better about all the times I can't remember English words now and I have no clue what the Russian word is either! Of course, Sergei was on a very crowded marshrutka when he answered his mobile phone and didn't want to speak a lot in English at that point - and, of course, in those crowded 'traveling ovens' it's hard to think anything at all except "I want out of here NOW." So Mel called his wife who was at home and she told him right away what we needed to buy.
The paint department at Stroi-ka (yes, the name is hyphenated in Russian) is in the basement. Actually it's a bit more complicated than that. Stroi-ka is located in what used to be 4 or 5 flats on the first floor of a 5 story apartment building just down the street from us. The owners also remodeled the basement and that is where the toilets, assorted inside doors, bathtubs, baseboards, drills and all the painting supplies are at. Because it is in the basement it is very humid, even though cooler than outside. By the time we had been there 5 minutes I had sweat running down my back and my arms and legs were wet. Sauna time, but fully clothed - which when I think of it, is really the way I prefer to be when I am at Stroi-ka.
In the little back room beside the kassa (cashier?) was a young man standing behind a glass case full of paint tint, rollers, masking tape, and other assorted items that had nothing to do with painting at all. The long narrow room was lined with buckets in all sizes, full of all sorts of things - alabaster, glue, paint, primer, white wash and something that goes on cement but I don't know what it is. There were also two paint chip charts, propped up against the near end of the counter, about knee high. One chart was for oil based paint, the other for (I hope) water based or Latex paint. Latex is not a word here but we've been told it's called "water paint" as opposed to oil paint.
After helping a couple guys, the young man came over and asked what we wanted. Mel said he wanted some white wash (in Russian) and the young man asked how much we needed. Hmmm. How much? Mel and I looked at each other in slight confusion. Then the young man asked us another question. Now understand that this young man hardly opened his mouth and I swear it was full of mush to start with, so at that point I was searching desperately in my mind, trying to figure out what he had just asked us. Was that Russian or Ukrainian or some other language I don't understand? Click. Oh - how many METERS. How many meters of white wash did we want for the ceiling of the entry hall? Does paint come in meters here instead of liters? Ha ha. Mind race, race, race - oh! How many square meters is the area we want to paint? Gotcha! Again Mel and I looked at each other in confusion. Finally I said, "Five or six?" The young man pointed to a bucket on the top shelf and told Mel that is what we needed.
Did we need anything else? Yes, primer. What was it for? Cement walls. How many meters? We had no idea so he pointed at a bucket he thought we could use. This one was slightly bigger than the white wash bucket. Anything else? Yes, paint rollers (I just pointed because I had no idea what they are called in Russian). He talked us into one instead of two, assuring us that the white wash washes out and we could use the one roller for the primer afterward. And a pan to put the white wash/paint in.
Anything else? Yes, paint. What kind? The kind on this chart of chips. What color? These three colors (I'm going to have fun painting!). I asked him if he had it and he smiled and started to explain that I had to make it myself. I asked him, "Don't you do it here?" And he laughed. No, I take it home and mix it up myself. How do I know how much tint to use? Well, you add tint until it's the color you want it to be. Mel and I looked at each other and said, "We'll come back with a translator before we buy the paint." He smiled again.
He got out a couple pieces of paper and a pen and wrote down everything we needed, gave it to Mel and Mel took off for the Kassa. Yes - the old fashioned system of 'pay before you hold what you want in your hand.' Mel brought the receipts back to give to the young man who was now busy with 3 or 4 other men. We stood and waited another 6 or 8 minutes. Mel handed him the receipts and he went around and collected all of the items we had just paid for, placing them on the glass top of the counter. Mel picked them up, put them into our carry-everything-anywhere bag and we left.
On the way back to the stairs I admired the bathtubs, looked over some baseboards and commented that it really smelled like someone had used one of the toilets for a urinal.
So, guess what I spent most of my day doing? Yep - white washing the ceiling of our entry hall and about 6 inches down on the walls where it has been white washed before. Tomorrow or Thursday I will paint the walls with primer. Hopefully by next week I'll have the walls finished. I can't believe how much better it all looks already! Before
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After
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