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First attempt at skim coat. I... do not think it is going well.

Trying to use the roller did not work. It wouldn't pick up the joint compound even with water added to it, nor would it transfer it onto the primed wall. So I had to resort to using a combination of the taping knife and a plastic trowel, and... well. I had to go back over it several times to try to spread it out more, and it shows. And so far, half a wall has taken me at least an hour and a half.

I definitely need either a mud pan or a hawk, or probably both. I also definitely need something else for smoothing, because for no clear reason the taping knife does not leave a smooth finish at all. (I had to get a steel taping knife because they didn't have the polyprop ones anywhere I could see, and I am Annoyed because I'm sure the polyprop one would've smoothed things nicely.) And I probably need a proper trowel rather than to use plastic joint knives.

I also seriously need a work tray or tool tray for the ladder, and probably also to rearrange the room so I can better get at the corners of the wall. The ladder is a multifold, but I cannot find a configuration where I can actually get right in close to the wall's corners and be able to easily reach the working surface without straining or risking my balance. Syneco don't seem to make any ladder accessories of their own though, and every time I try to find out if there are any universal or compatible work trays, I just get annoyed about the price of ladder accessories and give up. I'd improvise something but I don't even know where to start.

I lost a post somewhere, but the blinds were finally defeated many days ago by removing the window screen and sticking my hand outside to get at the screws. It's definitely the wrong size for that window recess because some clearance is needed between the blind and the glass, but both the recess and the bracket are 50mm. But I'm not replacing it unless I can get something usable and of the right size for free, and I highly doubt that'll happen.

I scraped the bad wall again yesterday, and managed to get the majority of the fossilised tape off eventually by drowning it in Simple Green. Isopropyl was working too, but I didn't want to use the entire bottle. I tried window cleaner (since AFAIK most of those are just isopropyl with a colourant and bittering agent added) but it didn't work very well. The Simple Green also helped to lift some of the adhesive gum.

But not all of it, and even after another scrub with sugar soap, those patches are still sticky. It's looking more and more like a skim coat is going to be needed, which... ugh. For a minute there, I thought I'd gotten away with not doing that.