This weekend, as we raced to finish getting everything ready for the plumber, I had flashbacks to the insane, exhausting
"marathon" we went through to get the scaffolding down a few months ago. Andre is scheduled to leave London on Tuesday, and our plumber is coming tomorrow (Monday) to install the new radiators and get the heat working - so we're down to the wire...
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| Morning of October 15 - yesterday's completed drylining |
Andre started the weekend by continuing to hang plasterboard - this time in
"the box". Once again, we were only working on one wall, since for now we just need to work on the area where the radiator is going to be hung. But it was a ridiulous amount of work. From my perspective it was far, far worse than
working on the living rooms walls - even though the living room area is much bigger - because dry-lining is incredibly messy, and so we had to pack up
everything and clear "the box" of all of our possessions and "furniture" (in reality, the only furniture is the air mattress, but still...).
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| Two boards up and ready for another |
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| Finished and ready for plaster! |
Once the pieces of plasterboard had dried and were rigid, I started plastering (known as spackling in the US) the joints between them. It wasn't difficult work, but I was totally unprepared for how finicky and tiring it was! I had to start by mixing dry plaster with water to make the plaster (spackle), ensure it was the right consistency, then apply it, smoothe it over the joints, wait for it to dry, sand it... and then repeat the whole process with a second coat. It looked and sounded so easy, but I discovered instantly that getting a smooth, even coat of plaster onto joints takes skill and technique - neither of which I had. (So in the end, it took Andre to make some of the more stubborn areas look presentable!)
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| Plastering the joints |
We put in 12-14 hour days both Saturday and Sunday, but by Sunday night
we did finally get to the point where the only thing left to do was
paint the newly-hung plasterboard (just in the spots that will be behind
the radiators, since after the radiators are installed we obviously
won't be able to get to those areas).
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| October 16th - Hanging the last few boards |
But at around 9pm Sunday, exhausted, somewhat cranky - and daunted by the prospect of the enormous clean-up operation and reconstruction of the "box" that will have to happen before we can go to sleep tonight - we decided we deserved a little break while the final coat of plaster dried... so the painting only got done later on, after a quick trip to the pub and a couple of pints! Thank goodness for paint rollers...
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| Finished - ready for the radiator! |
