More Floor

Hi folks! As you can see we are just about ready to start laying the floor in the Love Shack. Its all cleared out, the underlay is down, and Richard kindly returned my chop saw yesterday. All systems go!

More Love

Today I finished the front side of the large removable panel. This is it in a state of non-removedness. The gap on the right will be filled with a non-removable panel. I've also been working on some integral shelves for the Love Shack of which more soon.

Love Shack Action!

Action stations in the Love Shack. I've started making the removable and non-removable sections of the panel which will extend right across the gap, offering privacy to all Love Shack guests in the future for whatever hot lovin' they want to get up to. The removable section of panel is so that we can get larger objects (such as a mattress) up and down which won't fit through the hatch.

25 Litres in a day...

...of white emulsion went up on the walls and ceilings. The pictures say it all.

Painting

The reason for the big clear out on Monday? So we could all paint like crazy on Tuesday!

Niels did the ceilings because he is the tallest, and also the only one apart from Sal who doesn't have some physical ceiling painting impairment.

The lovely Sal (Niels's partner) wearing my old Dexy's Midnight Runners style dungarees.

The lovely J9 hard at it.

AJ was at it too!

Niels and AJ found a highly efficient way of spinning the washed up paint rollers dry!

Paint boy

Let there be light! (Singular)

I had to wait until after dark to take these shots. The source of the illumination is entirely from the low energy lighting installation (no flash photography) and mighty splendid it is too. When all the walls and ceilings are painted white it'll brighten up a lot more.
Your first look at our lovely new loo. We may have to have a family raffle to decide who gets to go first.
Arne inspecting the MLS with its own lighting. Well done Sparky! Hope the oozing gets better soon.

Let there be lights!

I think these lights are the only thing that has survived from the old to the new. They used to be on the wall in what was the guest bedroom, but they look a lot nicer in the Love Shack!

Corner detail

Sorry, I meant to put this up yesterday. The ceiling and window recess of the Love Shack are all plastered out and drying nicely. Richard spent the day mostly going over what he'd done on Tuesday with finishing plaster, and preparing the way for some major action on Thursday, which is today. So stand by for some pictures later today, so exciting they may infringe laws in several parts of the galaxy!

Little Richard

From this angle Richard looks really titchy. He's not though, he's about 6'4" so he can reach really high with his plastering trowel. He's got a new one now as the studio has seen off his trusty old one. So that's 1 hammer drill, 1 trowel, 1 pump spray, 1 cement mixer drive belt, its like a tool graveyard around here!

Love shack receiving some trowel-style love action too.

Skylight detail

Richard was at the dentist this morning so he didn't get quite as much done as usual. I wanted to post a picture of his lovely shiny white smile, but since he is a grumpy so and so and that rarely happens, it might be a while. Instead, you might notice here the skylight recess is now plasterboarded and will get plastered tomorrow, just like Richard was on Saturday. Allegedly.

Hans 1-0 water pipes.

Nothing is ever easy. After 12 grueling rounds, I finally came out victorious, scoring a knock out in the final round.The water pipes suffered such a heavy defeat they have retired and shall remain hidden. Sorry folks, there will be no rematch.

Beavering in the MLS

The boards on the back wall received two coats of acrylic matt varnish today, making them look mellower than a jazz musician at 2am. Tongue and groovy, man.........

Also I've been busy boxing the water pipes. I am like the Marvin Hagler of the MLS.

Boards and plaster

Today I finished boarding the back wall of the mezzanine. The boards on the right are the most recently erected, and are still wet with woodworm killer. I used to love watching my Dad do stuff in his workshop, and he could do no wrong as far as I was concerned. Yet last weekend I was spraying some timbers with woodworm killer and I had to listen to a great long lecture from my 8 year old son on how the poor little woodworms have an equal right to be alive to any other creature, including me. "But I don't go eating the woodworms' houses," I muttered through gritted teeth. But at last Richard has pulled his finger out and done something worth taking a snap or two of....

He put some insulated board up around the patio doors so that looks a whole lot better....

....and this master of many trades also got the first of the new plaster up in the shower room! One ceiling down, three to go, and countless walls. Stay tuned for more exciting plastering style action in the days to come.

Bored with boards?

Well I am, I can tell you! Paint-stripping these boards is a pain in the... knees. And it takes ages. But I guess it will be worth it in the end, as it will look lovely. Even Richard thinks so.I had a little brainstorm when cutting one of the boards and it is 5cm too short. Can you spot which one it is? Never mind, the skirting board will cover the hole. The other hole is for a socket.

Some colour

The back wall of the mezzanine love shack will be boarded with the planks that came down from the sloping ceiling. I made a start on that yesterday and got on more today. Stripping the paint off is lots of work but its worth it because the boards are really old and the wood is very beautiful, and some varnish will bring out its gorgeous mellow tones.

Grey day

Its pretty monochromatic around here these days. Plasterboard is grey, render is grey and concrete is grey. So we have grey ceilings, walls and floor. But the space is really coming together.

Here's the walls of the shower room.

The back wall of the whole space is really long and uninterrupted, and has room for lots of pictures on it. Some Gardner sketches would look damn good.

Up in the mezzanine progress is obvious too.

Back to work!

At last! Some visible progress. Richard is back with a vengeance, keen and enthusiastic as ever, which is not saying much. I helped him lots today but I'm not in the photos as I took them.We plasterboarded all the sloping ceiling with the skylight and most of the end stud wall. I stuffed all the rockwool (glassfibre insulation) into the wall as I'm the junior member of the team, and it is a disgusting job.
I will be in the bath shortly, washing all that horrible prickly itchy dusty stuff out of every crevice. Hopefully another post on Wednesday as I'm off to Kent tomorrow.

Insulation sensation!

Humble apologies for the lack of updates over the weekend! Offline for just two days, and low and behold, a complaint flooded in from one of my avid viewers! Here's what I was up to on Saturday and Sunday, finishing insulating the roofspace.This view looks down towards the patio doors from the mezzanine floor. You won't see through the gap when it is finished as the mezzanine will be all sealed up with access via a trap door.
This view is from the same spot looking up at 90 degrees clockwise from the other shot. Richard is off on other jobs until after Christmas, so all you'll see between now and his return is what Arne and I manage. I will post pictures of my bodged efforts and have Richard racing round to sort it all out!

F.A.O. Paula

Hi Paula, (Paula is Richards lovely partner, for those who don't know) I hear that Rich has been telling you that I curse like a builder and generally have very bad on-site language. Its all lies, of course. I'm sure he's only trying to divert attention from his own potty mouth. Why, only this afternoon, he was heard to utter "F*** p*** willies and bums!!" Shocking. I expect the outrageous fibber will be telling you I break wind next.

Anyway, on to today's toil: I can't complain about that at least. Its looking mighty fine. Above you can see most of the ceilings are now up. Amazing how the space underneath seems to widen.

Another view taking in the bathroom, and the outside wall is now done too with insulated board.

More insulated board goes up where the kitchenette will be. We hired an apeman to put the boards up.

Meanwhile, I was cutting the insulation boards and filling the gaps between the rafters. That stuff gets everywhere. In your lunch, in your hair, in your eyes, in your underwear. No wonder Richard got me to do it.

Crack of dawn

The frosty view this morning from the mezzanine skylight.