Go go go!

Dan the plasterer arrived early Sunday morning and he set off, cutting and fitting all the plasterboard to the staircase and the wall in Cat’s bedroom.

In super quick time he had the plasterboard fitted. The plan was to fit the plasterboard today and do the wet plastering tomorrow (Monday), but he has already got well ahead of himself so decided he would start the plastering today!

The wall is getting filled in and we are very pleasantly surprised about how spacious the landing feels still. We were expecting it to feel really small but it absolutely doesn’t!

We have used so much of this green Frogtape, rolls and rolls of it. It has saved so many of our beams and timbers from plaster and paint.

Cat prepping the dormer windows for painting, her favourite job (not), hoovering after sanding.

We are rapidly falling out with Farrow & Ball paints. What with the lime wash fiasco that cost us a great deal of money, time and muscle power, and now their normal emulsion paint on our feature wall in the attic is f***ing peeling off! It isn’t the plaster as the mist coat underneath is fine, it is just the F&B top coat… Cat is furious as you can well imagine.

Not only is it peeling off, but last weekend Cat touched up parts of this wall (with the same pot of paint as originally used) and it is a different colour! Yep, we stirred it and did everything you have to do with paint, but it is definitely lighter. This whole wall will need repainting…

Our new oak staircase is wrapped up and protected from the onslaught of wet plaster…

My rather more serene dog walk, so excited to see everything turning green.

Plastering begins! Dan has protected everything very well, Cat has given him ‘the talk’ about no plaster on any oak or floors or painted walls, but it is very difficult to not make a mess while plastering.

Dan doesn’t hang around, blink and you miss him.

Dan starts fitting the plasterboard on the inside of the staircase.

Cat’s bedroom wall is finished! We are so happy to see the back of the ugly wall, pipes and cables underneath it.

This scene makes us both feel a bit sick…… Dan is mixing all the plaster in Cat’s bedroom, better this than outside and carrying it up and down our old staircase.

Cat is painting the massive steel shoes and brackets in the attic that are holding the house together. We are using Farrow & Ball’s ‘Railings‘, a beautiful blue-black that we also used on our old metal windows when we renovated them.

Cat has also finished painting the skirting in the attic in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Purbeck Stone’.

Dan finishing off fitting the plasterboard on the inside of the staircase, ready for plastering tomorrow.

Ahhhh (silent screaming).

The doorway into Cat’s bedroom where the modern plaster meets the traditional lime. In case you were wondering how come we haven’t used lime plaster here, we only really need lime plaster on the external walls (for its breathability to be most beneficial to the building) and on any old walls that originally had lime (to keep the Conservation officer happy). All these walls are new and internal, so modern plaster is allowed.

Patching up a hole that was in Cat’s bedroom wall.

Colin sealing up a gap under the window seat in the bathroom.

The landing (from Zanna’s bedroom door) still feels big and spacious. The only downside is that we can’t see the expanse of the central stone chimney breast from here anymore.

The cupboard under the stairs. Dan has done a marvellous job and also cleaned up very well!

One of the steel plates bolted to the purlin (holding it together where it was splitting apart) that Cat is painting.

Painting the top coat on the inside of the dormer windows.

The skirting and timber supports are painted the same colour as all will be visible. The supports were originally going to be inside a cupboard but we decided not to add cupboards along this side of the attic so these are now on display.

I noticed a wet patch on the flagstone floor in the sitting room and couldn’t work out where it might have come from, then I looked around and realised it wasn’t the only stone that was looking wet. It was as if the stones were sweating as it was coming up through the stones! This patch was particularly bad I think because of the black plastic sheet that was sitting on top of the floor not allowing the floor to breath and the moisture to evaporate away. Amazing.

Cat struggling to cover the wooden floor under the stairs with the last clean bits of Ramboard.

The rain has been hitting the front of the house recently (it’s been super windy) and as a result the rain has actually come through one of the oak pegs in the bathroom window and dribbled down the freshly painted wall… We are going to need to seal this on the outside somehow so it doesn’t happen again.

Colin has volunteered to finish the silicone in the shower where boots are not allowed.

Masking off the edges.

Another task that Colin is expert at (he really is, he silicone’s windows into aircraft).

Also, no-one else likes using silicone, it’s awful stuff that is really difficult to handle.

A tidy pile of left over plasterboard.

More hoovering. It’s never ending!

2 comments

  1. Yes it is and no they won’t! We rang Farrow & Ball many times to get advice on using the lime wash (many months ago now) and tbh they hadn’t got a clue. Their advice certainly did not help us in any way so kind of lost confidence with them… We are super impressed, however, with Fenwick & Tilbrook paints, the quality and colour range is fabulous, so we shall be using them from now on!

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