And they're out of the blocks...

Morning – depending on when you are reading this.

We had a cracking day on Saturday – it all went to plan pretty much which is nice!

I left work early on Friday to get some prep work done ready for ripping apart the spare bedroom on the Saturday. Prep work involved clearing the last of the bits and bobs from the bedroom, moving scaffolding, checking tools and buying some supplies.

Screwfix came up with the goods – well almost. They were out of stock on a few items, but had gloves, and dust mask, and damp membrane (to seal the door) gaffa tape etc. Also, following a long phone call to Screwfix head office I managed to get a new SDS drill J

The drill I bought in April 2009 is just in warranty and has started to play up a little, so on the off chance I rang up to see if I could get a replacement. Unfortunately, the replacement model number is a lesser specification than the one I have – they’ve down graded it basically, so had to pay an extra £30 to get a variable speed drill. Still, considering the absolute hammering the drill has had, I’m pretty happy to pay £30 to get a brand new one!

Now, they didn’t have one in stock in Huddersfield so we had to go to Bradford to pick it up. Not too bad. – once we found it! And as a bonus, Screwfix aren’t picking up the old drill until Tuesday, so I had 2 drills over the weekend. This was good as my good chum Luke volunteered to put a few hours of graft in on Saturday morning. So we both were able to go at it. Brill.

Friday night we also picked up a trailer we were able to borrow to take rubble to the tip, and popped in to the Gleich household to borrow their angle grinder to clean the beam.

We were all set to go.

Saturday Hannah and I both woke up with headaches, but a bit of breakfast and a coffee and w were ready to go. We sealed up the bedroom door using lots of gaffa and taping some damp proof membrane to both sides of the door. This has worked a treat, no dust has gone in to the house at all!

Access to the bedroom was now through the teeny tiny window!

I started taking the plaster off the walls at about 9:45am. As predicted it was quite hard as the mud and horse hair crumbled in very small parts. Luke joined me at 10:15 ish I think and then we both went at it. The dust was incredible with two people working in a small space with no ventilation! You could barely see a hand in front of your face. So we did 20 minute bursts then wait for it to settle, then go again. All the while, Hannah was serving us up with bacon and egg butties, coffee and doing a few trips to wickes and screwfix for extra rubble sacks, goggles and other bits and bobs.

Unfortunately Luke had to leave at half 12 but by that time we had finished getting the plaster off the walls. Cracking.

It then took a couple of hours to get all the rubble bagged up and out the window. A bit of team effort was required there, with me on one side and Hannah on the other dragging the bags out the window.

Next up I took the ceiling down. I wanted to do this to check the roof timbers were all ok, and electrical cables will need to be run through the roof space anyway. It took about an hour or so to get the ceilings down, then a while to get it cleaned up again and shifted out the window. How many rubble sacks do you need to fit a bedroom in? about 32.

Hannah had to go out in the evening to help at an event at church, but during the day she had been cleaning the beams in the kitchen of lime wash and plaster splatters left from when we did the kitchen 18 months ago. It’s a job well done, and something we had put off for a while!

After the ceiling it was time to get down to business with the beam. The beam had brown varnish/paint on it and we wanted to take it back to a more natural colour.

As we did in the living room, I used an angle grinder with a flat disc. It’s quite aggressive but does a grand job. It took over 2 hours and was incredibly dusty and quite awkward due to the pitched roof and lack of head height, but it did the job. It will need some more work to finish it off, but the bulk of it is done now.

So walls stripped, ceiling down and beam stripped. That was a productive Saturday and all the dusty work done! I finished at about 9:30pm, so put in a good 13 hour day – and feel very knackered for it too! A few aches and pains that is for sure. And then we had an hour of sleep stolen from us!

The room is fairly unremarkable really! We wondered what we might find under the plaster, but other than a rotten lintel, which needs some TLC everything is plain sailing – which is good, if a little boring. No interesting stones or features really.

Sunday afternoon we did 2 trip runs to drop off all the rubble and then dropped the trailer back where it belongs.

The evening was spent resting playing Carcassonne, then I had a nap, and Hannah cooked tea (great deal!) before vegging in front of a DVD. Just what the body ordered!

So what’s next? The room is still sealed up as it’s still filthy as! Tonight I hope to clean it and enable us to unseal the door, making access a little easier!

After that I need to get our electrician around to advise on electrics (I think he’ll do all the work to keep it legal – costs a little more but at least it’s a good, safe job then), hopefully I can put the wall boxes on in preparation though!

We need to get someone to look at the lintel as it’s quite rotten!

Next Saturday we take delivery of the mixer which enables us to do the stipple coat in the bedroom next Monday afternoon. Then we’re well away. Looking at 2 to 3 weeks after that for completion. Fantastic!

Still have a few decisions to make regarding flooring and radiator but all in good time!

It’s certainly a good start to project!

Until next time…