Category Archives: House

PVA

PVA is pretty amazing stuff, you know. It’s cheaper than wood glue, although it’s essentially the same thing, and it’s a great sealant. 

After a short break from decorating, old and new walls are sealed and ready for plastering. 

Finished

I’m now sitting in the garden, with a beer, listening to the baby woodpigeons moving around in the tree. 

I’m paint spattered and dusty, but content that the spare bedroom, which was once two bedrooms, is now finished. 

As is usual with any couple, there were disputed finishing touches. I asserted myself, though, hanging my old, beloved Cyndi Lauper poster. 

Which was quickly replaced by William McCarthy.

Floor II

One more coat on the new boards should probably do the trick. And then some clear varnish, of course. 

I really do wish I’d just replaced the whole floor though, it would have been easier in the long term. I have this predisposition towards retaining all things old. 

Floor

It may take some time to blend the new in with the old. 

I’m thinking that I probably should have just replaced the whole floor. 

Coving

Now the spare room’s plastered, it’s starting to look more like a room than a building site. 

Unfortunately, coving, one of my least favourite DIY tasks, took up most of my Sunday afternoon. 

I’m now sitting in the garden, listening to birds, with a well earned beer. 

Windows

Almost 13 years ago, when needing to have the dividing wall between the two back betrooms taken down and rebuilt, I glimpsed the potential of the rooms as a single room. 

The two identical windows made it obvious that the dividing wall wasn’t original to the house. 

And, now the wall is no more, the windows can be seen as they were intended. 

The plaster’s still drying in places, and there’s still a lot to do, but the result is better than I’d expected. 

It’s been the messiest job I’ve ever undertaken, complicated by the unusual angles in both rooms, due to old structural problems.