Kitchen Refurb

[plaques]

Shame on you lot for thinking such dreadful thoughts. Just think what it would be like getting up at two o'clock at night for a quick brew and suffering a power failure when in the back of your mind you may be under the impression someone has been planted in the wall. No, I was thinking more in terms of an inscription by the people who build the farm. Phew! got out of that one, I think!

[Stanley]

Re-use of headstones.... The story at Bancroft was that the ghost was the result of a headstone being used upside down for a flag at the back of the shed.
John Clayton once told me that some old grandfather clocks have their face made out of an old coffin plate. Recycling!

[Wendyf]

Plastering yesterday & today, so I am allowed to be the plasterer's mate...mixing, mixing & more mixing. It's a messy job but someone has to do it. A lot of bonding plaster needed to try and level up the internal walls.

[PanBiker]

Could you not spot tack plasterboards or put studding up Wendy? You could insulate at the same time with choice of boards. Dry lining back boxes for the electricals would be a lot easier as well, just a thought.

[Tizer]

That's what was done on our old stone walls, using a laminate of plasterboard on 50mm polyisocyanurate foam board, e.g. Kingpsan `Therma', `glued' to the wall by what I assume Ian means by spot tacking.

[Wendyf]

Studding and insulation on the outside walls, but Col prefers to plaster internal walls. He has tried tacking plasterboard in the past but wasn't happy with it. This wall is so uneven it would have left voids which could cause problems when it comes to fastening wall cupboards up. We would also lose 4 to 6 inches off the size of the room! It's going to be interesting creating fixing points on the outside wall.
The socket boxes are all in place, providing an accurate level to plaster up to.

[PanBiker]

I knew you would have already thought about it. Our loft party walls are done with tacked plasterboards then skimmed but they are brick and random stone. Only had to do the odd light fixing to them but had no problems. My monitor is on a wall bracket in my radio station corner and we have one or two shelves on the other party wall but I could get through to the brick for them.

You don't realise how much plaster you need, I remember it well when labouring for my dad when he helped with our first house. Had a job to keep up the mixing with the speed he could put it on the walls. Ditto when he pointed our gable end but all the mortar there had to be carted 30ft up the scaffolding. I was picking out below him and he was chasing me down.

[Wendyf]

Bonding layer of plaster finished on one wall, it just needs skimming now. The other wall is straighter and the plaster was in a better condition so most of it stayed on.






The animals are a nuisance!

Same wall 3 weeks back.

[PanBiker]

Tidy job Wendy, well done Col and yourself for the mixing.

[Wendyf]

It's cleaning everything up afterwards that I hate! Mixing is a tough job....
I was in trouble after the break for lunch, I had cleaned out my mixing container but hadn't cleaned round the outside, so when the first mix got tipped into the bosses tray...and he banged on it to loosen the sticking stuff inside, a few old dry bits fell in.....major disaster!! I managed to pick them out before retreating shamefaced outside to scrape and scrub the outside of my big bucket.

[Marilyn]

Remind Col that when it comes to assistants, he gets what he pays for!

I hate the way my husband mixes paint. He doesn't think it is important and he stirs his coffee more than he stirs paint. I like to mix paint slowly and well with a flat stick for at least 10 mins. He says I am obsessive, but it is important. So I am chief stirrer here...

[Stanley]

"So I am chief stirrer here..." I never doubted that!
Lovely job both of you.... Pleasure to see the pics as you gradually get a grip on it. Slow job but so worthwhile. Keep rubbing Col down with the used sump oil, it's definitely working! (Oh, and tell him I am in awe of anybody who can put plaster on a wall and get a result like that!)

[Marilyn]

Rub Col down? I think not. His "lackie" deserves it more! ( poor lass with her dirty encrusted bucket)

[Wendyf]

Well said Maz, especially as I had to follow up my bucket scrubbing with cooking a meal, washing up, mucking out two stables, taking a barrow round the field to collect droppings, and watering the plants in the poly tunnel, while the master plasterer showered, dined and settled back with his feet up to watch rubbish on the TV.

[Marilyn]

I understand soooooo well. We have both had a busy day, though I cooked dinner (as Febby doesn't cook unless I am struck down with a terminal illness...lasting one night at the very most...when he can cook a packet pasta...which...even if I was dying, would be too awful to eat!)
Only this evening I implored him ( once again) to learn how to cook simple meals. The usual smile assured me he could live on toast/baked beans/toasted cheese until I can cook again. ( Ye gods! I was more worried about becoming incapacitated myself and having to live on what he can cook.)
"Yes," I said, "But then there is the washing machine you can't use, and the tumble dryer "( and I think the upstairs heating system may be beyond him too).

Honestly....it IS a problem. I do worry about it. But what can you do when hit with smiling resistance. I taught my son how to cook/do the washing/iron/etc but hubby is another story...

[PanBiker]

Take all the baked beans, bread and cheese away and stop cooking his meals, sometimes it's kind to be cruel. Seriously it's time he learned, I'm off to plan my tea.

[Marilyn]

Panny...that is the thing...I am never NOT here, I am never NOT able to cook etc. I never seem to get crook.
( sorry to go off topic, Wendy)
About 8 weeks ago he humoured me by allowing me to show him how to cook our favourite Pasta/Salmon dish. Now he brags he can't remember a thing about how to go about it.
( back to topic...I am flogging a dead horse this end)

[Wendyf]

We take it in turns to cook, so it's Cols turn tonight...whatever he has been getting up to during the day. I think he got fed up with my cooking years ago!

[Stanley]

I think you all love your respective spouses..... As a singleton I do everything for myself and enjoy it. I particularly like clean sinks and lavatories.....
Back to topic... I love seeing what you are doing and watching progress Wendy.... I am so impressed.....

[Wendyf]

Another distraction today, the diesel tank on the pickup has started leaking so Col will be working on that rather than in the kitchen. Unfortunately it's a full tank and there is no means of draining it.

[Stanley]

Chewing gum makes a good stopper while he is dealing with it. Not dissolved by the diesel.

[plaques]

Unfortunately it's a full tank and there is no means of draining it.

That's a bit surprising. Every car I've worked on has had a drain plug. Admittedly I've nearly always avoided using this plug the potential damage would be catastrophic. I used an old car petrol pump which he can borrow if he gets stuck.

[Wendyf]

No drain plug on this one Plaques. He's had to take the tank off once or twice in the past so knows it well!

[Wendyf]

Thanks for the offer by the way Plaques, he is getting the tank off this morning....says he will lower it down on jacks. Last time we had a problem it was something to do with the pipework rather than the tank itself, so he is hoping it will be the same this time. Its a Nissan Navarra D22 pickup by the way...the underneath is rubbish but the engine is excellent and has hardly done any mileage - we only use it when absolutely necessary. Every year come MOT time and the welding gear has to come out he swears that it has to go...but it's so useful!

[Stanley]

I had a Mazda pickup like that Wendy. Everything fine except the chassis which was rotten. I gave it to two of my mates in Rochdale in the end, they were starting their own business and it was their 'company car' for a few years......