The thinking is that once the bedroom is done we will be able to make the spare room into a bit of a living room I.e. somewhere nice to sit and socialise/watch DVDs/Listen to music etc which is something we have missed. It also makes the bedroom space a little less chaotic hopefully!!
Doing the bedroom will leave us with only the living room, landing and stairs in a bad state - which we can live with for a bit while we save the pennies!
I took last week off work to get a good start on the bedroom (a tactic I've found to work well when starting a new room). I spent Monday clearing crap out of the room, doing a couple of tip runs with carpets and old furniture. We found a few pounds in the armchairs which was good. I think we bought a hotdog and ice cream at Ikea with it!
By the end of the Monday the room was ready to start plastering.
Tuesday was spent throwing on the first coat with Hannah. Not much fun that layer it has to be said. It doesn't feel any better for doing it, it looks a mess and is quite hard work. But we got it done before 5pm, which was when I had to go to work for a few hours to set some gear up for an open day the following day.
Wednesday was a funny day doing bits and bobs - doing a bit of shopping buying plasterboard, going to Womersleys to stock up on plaster etc. During the afternoon I took down the bedroom stud wall and rebuilt it to move the door to the centre of the room, essentially splitting the room in to 2 halves. 1 half for the bed, 1 half for wardrobe, drawers etc. This took longer than anticipated but got it done and got one piece of plasterboard up before I had to go to a meeting at church.
Thursday came and it was time for the second coat of plaster - haired NHL 3.5 lime plaster. It was a tough, long day. I started at 8am and finished at 9pm ish. The water sprayer I was using to wet the walls down gave up in the afternoon so had to head to the shop for that which was a pain. However, Jon, Liz and Ben Ward turned up during the afternoon and chipped in with mixing, clearing up, wetting walls down etc etc. All valuable help.
Ben W left on Friday morning to get back to Gateshead but Jon and Liz stayed on until Saturday. On Friday Hannah and Liz fitted the doors in the kitchen while Jon and I fit a door frame (surprisingly tricky on an angled wall) and plaster boarded the stud wall. Jon also made a good tidy job of an access hatch to access the trap under the bath and the shower fixings. Very good.
Saturday was a kind of frustrating day and I couldn't work out why really. Jon took some stuff to the tip in the morning while I started to the put the prependuit on the wall in the bedroom. To try and make it go as far as possible I mixed it a bit runny, but probably too runny which made it hard to work with. Got the whole lot done in 1 and a bit bags though, so that was pretty good.
While I was messing about with that Jon came back and plaster boarded the landing for the rest of the day. The wall at the top of the stairs has been un boarded since we did the bathroom back in May 2007, so it's quite a novelty coming up the stairs not to see pipes and wastes etc.
In the afternoon I went back out for supplies of plasterboard, blades and screws and Jon finished off the landing. Great stuff.
While we were doing that, Hannah and Liz were busy in the kitchen fixing worktops to units which takes longer than one might think but they did an excellent job. nicely fitted and secure. all good.
The evening we ate, chatted and waved farewell to Liz and Jon. Thank you for all your help.
Sunday was a day of rest.
Monday I plastered the 2 end walls in the bedroom with the top coat. This was quicker than I thought it would be and I got a finish I'm pretty happy with too. Another step up from the kitchen finish. I only planned to do one wall on Monday, but it went so well I thought I'd do the 2, but this made it a late night. Finished working at 11pm then had tea. Man I was hungry.
Tuesday I plastered the stud wall with the top coat of lime putty. again, this went well and looks good (I think!).
Wednesday I tidied the room of a lot of crap and moved stuff around to allow access to the long stone wall which will be done on Saturday. I also started repairing the ceiling ready for plastering next week.
Thursday (last night) I didn't do much really. I was late from work and had to go straight out after tea to a bonfire party. Which was good.
and Friday is today. I'm busy tonight so the next action will be tomorrow when I do top coat on the stone wall. Should be fun. Maybe.
Job for saturday - Top Coat.
Cheerio.
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