Cherie from North Wales has shared her family’s house chalk wall art. Here is what she said…
What did you do?
All you need to complete this is some chalk and some bricks or slabs and then get chalking. Must warn you though it’s very addictive and once you start there is no stopping
Any chalk works, the small pencil ones, pavement ones, or even the big chunky jumbo ones from b&m, The bigger the chalk the easier it is. We also found that if the chalk is slightly damp then it goes on a lot better. The idea at first started with chalking the back of the house (first photo attached).
It then went to me and my two children Alfie (age 8) and Elsie-May (age 4) doing a rainbow and love heart on the front of our shed (second photo attached) so that people could see when they walk past.
About a week later my mum did a big love heart on the other wall at the side of my house, when I saw this it made me want to complete the whole wall. So I got started colouring every brick on that side with my children.
My son decided it would be a great idea to write NHS in blue to show that we are thinking of them. (4th picture attached) Once I saw that whole wall covered in multicoloured chalk I said to the kids.. let’s do the whole house!
I pulled out the ladders and my sister Karla, her boyfriend Dave, and daughter Leela-May came out to help. Karla, Dave and I were out in the rain until 11pm that evening determined to get it done but we had a big patch we couldn’t reach (attached photos)
The next morning we got up and asked my sons Dad if we can borrow his really tall ladders to reach the top of the house. He chalked all along the top of the house
We were all so happy that it was completed but had no more bricks on my house to chalk as we had done every single brick, even pulled the wheel bin out to get behind it. (Hense me saying very addictive).
My neighbour Pete came out and said how amazing it looks, I said to him ‘your turn next’ he said ‘I haven’t got the patience but you can if you want’ Pete then got in the car and went to the shop so Karla, Dave and I saw it as a challenge, we chalked his shed wall whilst he was gone.
It then caught on to my neighbour Marco on the other side so we done his whilst he was eating his tea. I posted these photos on Facebook on different groups for people to see and the reaction was unreal. So many nice comments on there.
Other neighbours on the same row commented and said we could do theirs as well if we want. My mission then turned from chalking my whole house to chalking all sheds on my row (10 sheds) picture attached (I asked permission of every house that we have done).
We stayed out again until 11 at night in the rain and wind to get it complete as much as we could. The next morning we had 3 houses to complete on my row, as we were doing them neighbours from further down gave permission for theirs to be done aswell so this now turned the mission to do the whole of our street. Again we spent until 11pm in the rain to complete as much as possible and then back out first thing to carry on.
Neighbours came out to give the kids a big bag of skittles, a big bag of mini eggs and thanked us for what we are doing. When neighbours ask how far will I go with it I always said I’ve got my eye on the whole block of flats, my sister Karla laughed and said no chance but after we had finished my whole house and 14 sheds we decided to do something big for the 8pm clap for hero’s and it was also Colonel Tom Moore 100th Birthday that day. So we started on the block of flats (Pictures attached).
My sister Karla and I spent the whole day from around 1 o clock until 7:55 up and down a ladder in the rain and wind to get it done. Again neighbours came out with drinks for us, people offering to go to the shops for us, passers-by clapping at us and taking photos and thanking us for what we were doing. Once we had finished we did the clap and sang happy birthday together to Colonel Tom Moore and then my daughter sang Let it go by frozen.
How are you finding life at the moment?
This lockdown with two children before all of this has been a bit up and down as my children are getting frustrated that they can’t play out, can’t go to a park or school to see friends. My daughter is also being treated as being on the autistic spectrum (not yet diagnosed as too young but under specialist team who are treating as autistic) is finding this extremely challenging and it has been very difficult being in lockdown with her but this chalking mission has given the kids something exciting to do and gives us all something else to concentrate on and has made the days fly by.
I have had a few messages from neighbours thanking us for what we have done as they feel that we are now a close community and feel that we have bought us all together again how it used to be years and years ago. I have also had messages from people who live in the flats who are self-isolating thanking us for what we have done as they now sit in the window and see what we are doing or have done and smile, we have given them something cheerful to look at.
My next mission is to complete either the whole block of flats multicolored or to continue down onto the street leading onto ours as we have one entrance but 2 other streets leading onto ours… Or maybe both.. We will see
Tell us a bit more about yourself…
My name is Cherie Jones, I am 29 years old. I was born in St Asaph and have lived in Craig Y Don for nearly all my life so a lot of my neighbours have seen me grow up from a very young child. So to do this for them and bring happiness back into their lives in such a sad and uncertain time is amazing and to do it with my family is even better. Something we all will never forget.
I think the housebound with kids is an amazing idea, I have been on there myself and took ideas to do with my kids such as the salt dough idea with handprints and paint it.
I hope my chalking houses idea helps other families and their communities too.
