wallpaper stripping in a tall stairwell
I may have got my platform up and running but I still had some roughy toughy wallpaper stripping in a tall stairwell to do. The wallpaper wasn’t the worst I’d experienced but it wasn’t easy, without the Karcher steam stripper I just really don’t know how I could have tackled it. Without the platform too, in that high stairwell it would have been impossible to tackle it on wobbly ladders.
NB Stairwell platform construction in previous post
I had taken the Friday as a holiday and I expected to breeze through the wallpaper during my first day, however despite my best efforts and a couple of late evenings after work to break the back of the job, despite this I was still stripping wallpaper on the Saturday morning.
Friday was a bundle of odds & sods, I started by taking Izzi to school – which without doubt is one of my favourite things to do – and then I headed off for a quick and rather hilarious haircut (the banter not the haircut) at L&D Barbers in Wolsingham. Back to the ranch, a long important phone call and then some stripping in earnest… Actually stripping all day, then an evening trip out to see Izzi and put her to bed and then more stripping until 2am and even by 2am I was still a wall short of finishing.
Knackered though I retired for an early start the next day.
The next day involved a visit from Sandra and Russ, my lovely sibling and her equally lovely hubby. This time their agenda involved helping my Mum clear a relative’s house. Despite being so busy on this huge task they still found time to do me enormous favours. Basically they had a van on rental for the clearance but still managed to find time to drop off some goodies in the shape of a scaffolding platform – my Dad had promised but been unable to deliver – and some oddments left over from the house clearance. They didn’t have to do this and could have concentrated their efforts on helping my Mum out but even though they were knackered from days of lugging they still found the time to help me out… which is pretty unbelievable.
Anyway Saturday morning involved some household chores, more wallpaper stripping, which I still didn’t completely finish, some bonding plastering, some tidying around, some gathering of loose paper etc. etc. before San and Russ showed. A quick snack followed, some emptying of the van, a visit to deliver a washer and before you could say Jack Robinson a couple of hours had melted away.
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The afternoon came and I finished my stripping, waheeeeee, so then on with the job of filling, I was becoming pretty much rehearsed in the process now. Anyway a tub of Easi-Fill and a couple of hours later all the cricks and dimples were all plugged.
While the filler went off I wandered downstairs and did a bit more work on the end wall in the kitchen. The paint I’d applied last week had done a marvellous job of stopping the stains but there were still a spattering of tiny spots I’d missed. Out with the sanding block and paper, a quick sand down and some splodges of paint and I was ready for some dinner. I also found some time to steam clean the stained glass window, now I’m not too sure if this was recommended but it was quite dirty and the steamer put a gleam on its face that hadn’t been seen in donkeys, it just needs straightening in the frame now… being a bit lopsided as it is.
After dinner it was on with the loft hatch, the hatch had mostly been completed last year but while fitting the actual door and ladders I’d managed to bash a large section of plaster from the ceiling. This work had left lots of exposed laths and the ceiling surrounding the hatch was a rather horrible expanse of exposed ceiling bones and organs. It needed some work.
First job was to get the surface a bit more level, the laths were fine but what I really needed was some plasterboard fixing in to give me a more even playing field. As the plasterboard would be eventually covered I was quite happy for a Frankenstein approach, lots of little bits of plasterboard pinned haphazardly – nay skilfully – into place to allow some plaster to be strategically dolloped into place. Using cardboard cut-outs as a pattern and one of my newly donated jigsaws I cut angular sections of plasterboard to size and zapped them into place with my newly acquired (this day) Makita impact driver. The zapping was truly awesome and sometimes proved a little too awesome for the lighly equipped plasterboard but as it was all going to be covered with liberal lashings of plaster it wouldn’t matter too much.
Anyway 1:30am and I had finished, phew, tomorrow was a day with my lovely daughter so I could relax then.
Well actually maybe not, after a fantastic day with Izzi I got home at 11pm, I regarded my plasterboard and unhappy with one section I set about replacing it. Despite it being a work day the following morning I found myself adding a layer of bonding plaster and finally it wasn’t until 12:30am that I cleared up for bed… a 6:12am start beckoned for the next day and a 12 and a half hour shift to boot too.
Erk…