North Lodge Construction

Into weekend five and finally time to start decorating the room, hopefully we'll be done before Christmas otherwise Santa won't know where to leave my prezzies!  Ceilings had the first coat and already the rooms looking better.  We opted for Egyptian cotton, slightly off white.  Looks like it will need two coats but the rooms starting to take shape. We decided while we were at it the oversized radiator needed to go, another trip to Toolstation beckoned. Radiator off and finally all the woodchips gone. Woodwork glossed and time to paper the walls, the paper is 1400 thickness and feels like cardboard, hopefully it will cover the imperfections in the old walls. Nearly the end of Sunday and some good progress made, Jane wants a beer now so time to down tools and tidy up!

Four weekends into the renovation, finally there's light in the room, which isn't a bad thing considering it's winter in the UK and dark at 5pm. Ceilings now dry and next job is to fill the gap round the top of the walls, all the papers off and it's goodbye woodchip (bloody stuff!). Plasters on, smoothed with the trowel and a paint brush dipped in water gives a nice finish to the edges. Using the leftover skim, all the slight imperfections on the wall can be filled in, not sure where the slight comes from, the walls are terrible. End result, not looking bad now, soon be time to break out the gloss. Big decision coming up, the tired windows might need replacing, could set the whole project back a few weeks. Weekend five awaits, lining paper and paint ready now we've finally agreed on colours.

First coat of skim, my advice, don't try doing it when it's getting dark! Next day, it's drying but needs another coat, should really have done both on the same day as the drying coat sucked all the moisture from the second coat making it impossible to get a smooth finish. Another coat, another dark night, think I'd have learnt my lesson! Waking up with a hangover it was time to show the ceiling who's boss! Four coats later and it's not looking bad, This time I managed two coats in two hours and the finish looks a lot better. Next job sort out the walls and the corners but that's a job for next weekend, its Sunday and the footballs on and the beers chilled.

The bedroom was starting to look like Jericho, I kept looking out of the window couldn't see an Israelite in sight.  PVA time, a 5:1 mixture painted all around the damaged areas would hopefully stop the dust and make a good base for the bonding. The damage above the window was pretty bad and removing more of the woodchip made it worse, a lot worse. Out comes the trusty trowel and things already look better. More bonding above the window and round the ceiling where the new plasterboard doesn't quite fill the gap left from the old lathe and plaster.

All things being equal the plasterboard didn't fit the existing joists, what a result....not! If you've never tried holding up plasterboard on your own whilst trying to screw it to the the joists I can thoroughly recommend it! More problems!! While trying to remove the woodchip someone had lovingly put up numerous years ago, the walls kindly decided to come off with it, the simple job was now starting to take over our weekends. Two weekends in and the boards are now up, that's the easy part, now it needs skimming. And there's holes everywhere!!

Where it all began..... A bad seal round the shower un-noticed for several months caused the old lathe and plaster to crumble resulting in a hole in the ceiling. The only option........ The ceiling had to come down. Armed with only a couple of hammers the work began. Danger, teenager at work! Four hours later, a lot of mess but the ceiling was down, next job, putting it back together!!!