Following last week's removal of the scaffolding, and with the completion of the 1st fix electrics, I have been recovering my breath before the start of the plastering, and doing some tidying up. Hopefully, inside we have almost seen the last of plaster removal; the outside especially was getting very bad as contractors do tend to throw things anywhere out of their way, and it was pretty bad to start with as all the ivy from the roof is still lying beside the house. I have tidied up the scrap metal, moved a large quantity of old plaster into a huge pile, and have even cleared the path!
Today Chris and I attached the top two sections of cast-iron downpipe on both the side and back of the house. (The bottom pieces have to wait until the drains are sorted out.) While we were doing that, Adam the joiner came round, bringing his chainsaw, so at last the pear tree (the one that grew up to two inches from the house) could be felled. Adam also does wood turning and you can see why he likes pear for this activity as the wood is very close-grained. To complete the change I decided to take the garden saw to the large buddleia before it reached conservation size. So, the side of the house lost its pear tree and the buddleia in one day, and now feels decidedly spacious. The Enchanted Forest (see "It's all in the Name" last August) really is no more, therefore, and is now just a patch of undergrowth with a couple of trees.
Confession Time
This week I have finally finished the laths in the ceilings of the two back bedrooms and the patch on the landing, ready for the plasterer. These are hand-riven oak laths from a well known supplier in Devon. I bought 300 and, to my surprise, have only about 20 left. After all my hard work, I think that they actually look quite good, and I am very pleased with my efforts; right now I am almost feeing disappointed that they are about to be covered up!
Unfortunately, I had a little accident this week whilst splitting a wide lath to fit a narrow gap. I was standing beside a window for added light, and managed to tap the window with one end, with disastrous results. The really annoying thing is that I now realise that the glass was clearly old - it's only when you break it that you notice the distinctive features of old glass. I have checked most other windows and now know that a lot of the window glass is older than I realised so I'll just have to be more careful in future.
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