Friday 9 September 2011

A New Lair (Phase 2a)

Feast your eyes on this bad boy:



This isn't a Chaos Weapon, or a medieval torture device, this is the Perforator (imagine movie trailer voice man saying it for added effect).  It's sole purpose in life is to get rolled across walls and poke holes in thick wallpaper so the steam can get in and "unstick" (technical term).

Without this weapon I would have still been stripping the damn wall paper off today, even with an industrial strength wallpaper stripper steam machine thing.  As it was, stripping the wallpaper was hard work, especially as the steam machine turns the room into a sauna...

It was all worth it though as Phase 2a is complete!  All the destructive tasks have been completed, but in doing so we've uncovered a bit of a nightmare in the fireplace.



So my next task is to build a false wall across the fireplace opening and plaster across it.  I've never tried plastering before so it should be interesting!  I figured if I don't get it right the first time it's not that much hassle to start again if necessary.  The other slight problem is the gaps in the ceiling board either side, they'll have to be filled too.

On the positive side, my estimating of how much the chimney breast had been extended by has turned out to be a little conservative:



As you can see in the photo the gap is nearly double the size now.  So I might be having a rethink about what I do desk and shelf-wise in that corner.  As you can see the walls are in a bit of a state, but they've been recovered using Polycell Smooth-over paint - which is awesome.  I don't get excited about DIY products that much, but that stuff is the business.  The corner in the picture above is pretty much all white now, and I've started repairing the plaster further up the chimney breast.

Unsurprisingly there's been no painting done for a couple of weeks, but my latest article and photos have been sent off to the Ancible, and the next issue should be out soon.

I'm off to Colours 2011 in Newbury with some of the Ancible team tomorrow, really looking forward to that, and I might just spend some money there...

Hopefully another update this time next week!

As always comments and criticism welcome...

3 comments:

  1. I could use that as a torture device at work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is a great truism of diy that if you remove one thing to solve one job you will find two things that need fixing beneath it... I remember having to remove a pane of glass that had been painted over from a door in Swindon. Turned out that not only was the glass reinforced with wires (necessitating an axe) but that the glass had been stuck in with silicone bathroom sealant rather than proper grout so it gripped and stretched. A half hour job turned into best part of a day. Lair design is fun though isn't it? I keep mentally designing mine, have to blog its development when I get my own darned place again!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aye, this is my fourth DIY project in this house, and all four have uncovered some really irritating problems that have required significant effort to rectify - no axe on glass action yet though!

    ...and yep the Lair planning has been loads of fun - I can't wait to get it to a stage where I can start painting again though.

    Angry Lurker - there are a few people at my work who would benefit from it too!

    ReplyDelete