After painting

We had some problems with the rendering under the bay windows of our house cracking. When we bought the house it had actually fallen off and we had the bay sections rerendered. 6 years later it was in need of a coat of paint again and the cracks were making a comeback.  In October last year, we actually got a decorator in to do the outside painting as we were both so busy at the time and we thought it needed doing before the winter as the cracks were gradually getting wider and we didn't want the rendering further damaged by ice. Unfortunately, the highly recommended decorator used a friend to do our house and the friend did not know he had to prepare before he painted.  He actually lied, saying he had already done it!  He hadn't!  When I challenged him about the loose paint still on the wall and the lack of flaked off paint on the floor he said he wasn't told to do it! Grrrrr!
So off he went!
And now we have finally got round to doing it ourselves.  The cracks did cover, with  a few coats of the special paint, and they seem to have covered well. Phew!
The odd state of the bottom is because we decided to seal the bricks while the weather was fine and to repaint the black at a later date. So, for time-being at least, it looks as though the house is a giant melting ice -cream!   Oh well - it's all waterproof...