half hour, women notice evrything :-)

:-) my mrs would notice a minute after going through the door

So, it souds like Ross has gone for 0.0001 hours.

haha. is married life really that bad?

coach - the kids have been with her for 10 days. It's just been me at home. Come on, have a stab at it? How many hours?

(and I promise to adhere, to the closest hour, to the actual time it does take her. Send in UN inspectors if you want to.)

1 hour mate - like I said. Would have gone for less, but half an hour had gone. You'll crack. If she's had the kids for 10 days, you'll crack and tell her what you done.

33.7 seconds!!

A. Hope you used the correct colour paint cos if you didnt!!!!.
B. Why did you wait until she had gone before you did it? cant you work as a team or something??.
C. Is it a guilty conscience that instigated this DIY? what you been up to then??.
D. You trying to cover up some other odour with paint fumes? perfume??.
Just being devils advocate here.

She will of course instantly notice the fresh paintwork, you stand no chance, all estimates of longer than 10 seconds are wildly optimistic and laughable.......OR ALTERNATIVELY....
Ok, so here's how it will go...
She will arrive back at 21:00 and spend ten minutes in the hallway whilst you unload the car.
Over the course of the next three hours there will be numerous reasons for her to climb the stairs, including, but not limited to, the kids going to bed, visits to the little girls' room etc.
At midnight you will go to bed and she will go up to the top floor to check the kids. As she is coming down the stairs she will say "Have you seen the paint peeling on the top window?"
Given the limited time i had, I did not strip back the window. It's a six foot bay window and would have required scaffolding and far more time than I had.
My response will be a wry smile, coupled with "So you didn't notice anything else? The walls? the stairs, the skirting boards? The door frames?"
At this point, the penny will drop............
or something like that ;D

4 hours, im gambling on the fact that she will be shattered and go straight for a kip

1.5 hours

good luck, you'll need it :-)

A 65 hour week AND you prepared and painted three flights of stairs?

You Sir are a machine!!!

I work a 37.5 hour week and can rarely be arsed to do any DIY at my home (in the week)

You've inspired me. Today I'm going to sand the top of my staircase along with the linen cupboard (I guess that's what you'd call it, it's actually empty) and give it all a bloody good undercoat......whilst watching whatever football match that sky show.

I hope your hard work gets noticed in an instant. I'm saying three minutes, max.

-0.01 seconds.Either she'll smell the paint as she walks up the garden path OR she'll have been in constant daily contact by phone with either her sister,best freind or next door neighbour (or ALL of the above),checking up on what you've been up to anyway,so, she'll already know.

She would have been on the phone whilst travelling back.Women can do that thing we cant..MULTI-TASK.

great post, well - since all many have gone for instant discovery of your hard work, I will choose another option. She wont notice before you tell her