All the pieces of MDF, cornice, pine and everything else which will be painted but hasn’t previously been painted needed a coat of primer. It’s an odd start to the day. You paint, but it doesn’t count as one of the two coats of paint you need to do with the wall colour.

It took a while to hunt out all the bits which hadn’t previously been painted, including on the ceiling where the plasterers have filled the holes left by old lights.

We also needed to tape up around windows, along the floor and along the edges of the Ikea Billy units so the paint didn’t stray too much.

In the end, it was a lot of work and the only official coat of paint was the first coat on the ceiling.