Getting wired and plastered

Son of Ulf and Sidekick, May 2019

There's been some satisfying progress with the Lola Towers Renovation Project. The last remaining large indoor job within Phase 1 is to strip, plaster and paint the walls and ceiling of the main living room, stairs and upstairs landing.

Ilf removed all the wallpaper a while ago. That was a major operation, and one that I don't think he relished - the wallpaper was old and the underlying plaster crumbly. Then I chased both the electrician and the plasterer for a while before pinning them down on dates.

Bill the Electrician came with his assistant plus a lad on work experience, dug out new sockets and put in wiring for a second overhead light and switch, but left me with only one usable light and one socket in the room. He told me that the plasterer would find it much easier this way, and he'd come back afterwards and finish it all off.

My chosen plasterer was Son of Ulf, who previously did a beautiful job on the plastering for the kitchen and picks up extra work at weekends and in the evenings while working with Ulf in his day job. He has a Sidekick who is even younger than he is. They ate a whole packet of biscuits in about 15 minutes on the first day, and they made a terrible mess of my parquet floor downstairs. I supervised quite closely on the protection for the new carpet in the upstairs hall.

Electric Bill took his time for the return visit, leaving me with the single light and one socket in the room for a week or two - not that I wanted to use the room until I'd at least cleaned up the floor. When they returned they found that Sons of Ulf had completely plastered over one of the new sockets and they had to dig it out again with much complaining.

Ilf has come round to view the work with approval and, I think, a hint of envy. I have spent much of my spare time in the time since the job was finished in cleaning the dust and plaster residue from every surface in the entire house. It is a time-consuming and filthy job. I have contracted out most of the time-consuming and filthy jobs within the scope of the LTRP, but cleaning is one thing that I feel I ought to do myself. This may be because I don't (yet) employ a cleaner.

Ilf is busy for several months and gave me a date quite a long way into the future for the painting. I commented that I could probably make a start on the undercoat myself, and while he gave me a couple of tips I could sense that he doubted my competence for this task. Given that I'm having trouble finding time to simply clean the mess made by the plastering, I'm not sure he need worry about me making much progress before he's able to come back.

[On an entirely separate note, I was browsing some old blog posts in nostalgic mood and was horrified to discover that the Brexit referendum took place before I'd even seen the architect, let alone started work on the new kitchen. Politics has been grim for so long that it's hard to remember a time before Brexit.]