All wall (apart from the light)

Here, Richard is plastering the side wall, or the back wall, depending on your point of view.

And this was the magnificent sight awaiting me when I returned from Arne's tag rugby match. The back wall with a coat of hardwall plaster on it. I think this is definitely the back wall, now that I come to think of it, so the other one must be the side wall. But whatever, if I'm brutally honest with myself, anyone who was whipped up into a frenzy of excitement and anticipation by my earlier post might be a tad disappointed with a couple of pictures of bog-ordinary walls.....

......But Holy guacamole! What's this? Only the shower room light, that's all! Sparky has been back in action! Oh my God!! I don't think I can take any more, I have to go and lie down!!!!

Corner detail

Sorry, I meant to put this up yesterday. The ceiling and window recess of the Love Shack are all plastered out and drying nicely. Richard spent the day mostly going over what he'd done on Tuesday with finishing plaster, and preparing the way for some major action on Thursday, which is today. So stand by for some pictures later today, so exciting they may infringe laws in several parts of the galaxy!

Little Richard

From this angle Richard looks really titchy. He's not though, he's about 6'4" so he can reach really high with his plastering trowel. He's got a new one now as the studio has seen off his trusty old one. So that's 1 hammer drill, 1 trowel, 1 pump spray, 1 cement mixer drive belt, its like a tool graveyard around here!

Love shack receiving some trowel-style love action too.

Skylight detail

Richard was at the dentist this morning so he didn't get quite as much done as usual. I wanted to post a picture of his lovely shiny white smile, but since he is a grumpy so and so and that rarely happens, it might be a while. Instead, you might notice here the skylight recess is now plasterboarded and will get plastered tomorrow, just like Richard was on Saturday. Allegedly.

Hans 1-0 water pipes.

Nothing is ever easy. After 12 grueling rounds, I finally came out victorious, scoring a knock out in the final round.The water pipes suffered such a heavy defeat they have retired and shall remain hidden. Sorry folks, there will be no rematch.

Beavering in the MLS

The boards on the back wall received two coats of acrylic matt varnish today, making them look mellower than a jazz musician at 2am. Tongue and groovy, man.........

Also I've been busy boxing the water pipes. I am like the Marvin Hagler of the MLS.

Leaps and bounds!

Well my loyal followers, today you have been rewarded with these exciting new images showing entire areas where the plastering is done! Scroll down to 30 November to see this area from the same angle in a much more raw state. Oh! How far we have come.
And swiveling to the right a bit, this picture shows the area where the kitchenette will be installed. I must say, the cybernetic replica of Richard did great work today, and was able to carry on a far more civilized conversation than the real thing.

Cyborg recharge

Yesterday's action continued with more plastering. Richard sent this cybernetic replica of himself to do the work while he sat at home watching DVDs. I took this photo while it was recharging itself from the mains via it's groinal socket. You can see the plastering arm is twitching.

Tool shelf

Yesterday's action started with Richard putting in a couple of nice wooden window sills, or as he calls them, "tool shelves."

Up close and personal

Not much happening right now as I'm working and Richard is off fixing Dave's ceiling for a bit. But I thought maybe you might enjoy zooming in on some details. Or alternatively, maybe they will bore you rigid.
A coat of bitumen paint applied to the window reveal as the wall here is particularly wet, and this will serve as a moisture barrier when new plasterboard is put up.

An interesting detail (well okay, I'm scraping the barrel here) is this box with a wire in it. It is where the light switch for the bathroom will go.

Aiport guy 2

The client wanted to try a couple of different poses for the airport guy, so this is me again posing. When I look at the shot on the right I think I should wear a paper bag on my head. I haven't had any comments from anyone for ages, surely this will provoke some, albeit uncomplimentary....

Before and after

Click on the picture for a more detailed look. These two shots were taken from just about the same spot a few weeks apart.

Airport guy

While Richard and his trowel were in perfect harmony, I was busy with the camera and the self-timer posing as one of those guys who directs planes to their parking spot at airports. I have to draw such a guy for my work. I looked the signals up on the internet and this one means "Turn left." The look of concentration on my face belies the fact that this was not difficult at all.

Action!

A man and his trowel in perfect harmony.

Plaster master

More plastering happened in the shower room today, but this picture of the ceiling under the Mezzanine Love Shack (I think I will just abbreviate that to MLS from now on) is the most visible and spectacular achievement today. My participation in the works will be much more limited for the time being as I actually need to earn some money to pay Richard, and some work has flooded in.

I will try and get a picture of Richard in action tomorrow, although I have to be extremely lucky and walk in at the precise moment when he's actually doing something.

Boards and plaster

Today I finished boarding the back wall of the mezzanine. The boards on the right are the most recently erected, and are still wet with woodworm killer. I used to love watching my Dad do stuff in his workshop, and he could do no wrong as far as I was concerned. Yet last weekend I was spraying some timbers with woodworm killer and I had to listen to a great long lecture from my 8 year old son on how the poor little woodworms have an equal right to be alive to any other creature, including me. "But I don't go eating the woodworms' houses," I muttered through gritted teeth. But at last Richard has pulled his finger out and done something worth taking a snap or two of....

He put some insulated board up around the patio doors so that looks a whole lot better....

....and this master of many trades also got the first of the new plaster up in the shower room! One ceiling down, three to go, and countless walls. Stay tuned for more exciting plastering style action in the days to come.

Bored with boards?

Well I am, I can tell you! Paint-stripping these boards is a pain in the... knees. And it takes ages. But I guess it will be worth it in the end, as it will look lovely. Even Richard thinks so.I had a little brainstorm when cutting one of the boards and it is 5cm too short. Can you spot which one it is? Never mind, the skirting board will cover the hole. The other hole is for a socket.

Some colour

The back wall of the mezzanine love shack will be boarded with the planks that came down from the sloping ceiling. I made a start on that yesterday and got on more today. Stripping the paint off is lots of work but its worth it because the boards are really old and the wood is very beautiful, and some varnish will bring out its gorgeous mellow tones.

Grey day

Its pretty monochromatic around here these days. Plasterboard is grey, render is grey and concrete is grey. So we have grey ceilings, walls and floor. But the space is really coming together.

Here's the walls of the shower room.

The back wall of the whole space is really long and uninterrupted, and has room for lots of pictures on it. Some Gardner sketches would look damn good.

Up in the mezzanine progress is obvious too.

Rendering

Did you ever see anyone looking more miserable?

Wall is looking mighty fine though. And Richard wasn't nearly as miserable as he looked, at least before he ripped his trousers....

A bit more private

I've been off for a couple of days, and in my absence, Richard finished the plasterboarding! The cheeky fellow said he got on much better without me "helping." Don't know why I put up with that kind of lip from a tradesperson.... However, having solid walls for the shower room certainly improves the privacy aspect and makes a big visual impact.

Back to work!

At last! Some visible progress. Richard is back with a vengeance, keen and enthusiastic as ever, which is not saying much. I helped him lots today but I'm not in the photos as I took them.We plasterboarded all the sloping ceiling with the skylight and most of the end stud wall. I stuffed all the rockwool (glassfibre insulation) into the wall as I'm the junior member of the team, and it is a disgusting job.
I will be in the bath shortly, washing all that horrible prickly itchy dusty stuff out of every crevice. Hopefully another post on Wednesday as I'm off to Kent tomorrow.

Christmas diversion

Hello dear bloggies! Sorry to have been so slack with my posts lately. Nothing much to show, as I've spent nearly all my spare time shopping for floors, shower room fixtures, kitchen units, etc etc etc, and Richard has been on his Christmas break. As was I for a few days in Kent visiting the rellies, one of which had health issues which meant I spent much of the time whizzing to the hospital and back. But I did sneak out to see my mate Richard who owns and restores a variety of exotic vehicles. He's not a qualified engineer, but there can't be many better ones. He is a genius with metal and machinery. This is his tank. He says its just a self-propelled gun, but it looks like a tank to me. He's selling it soon.

Here's the beautifully restored interior of the turret with the breech of the gun at top.

And when I visited him, he'd just bought this truck. And that's his US Army truck behind. I've known Rich for over 40 years.

Rooster

Dear old Rooster died on 28 December aged a positively ancient 15 years and a month or two. He had a great life and narrowly missed out on being put to sleep at five months for biting someone's kids. Luckily he ended up in the dogs home instead. Actually he always liked children, although he could never eat a whole one.