Day 693: $£##8@!!!!!! Trim

You'll have to excuse the profanity, but believe me, there was much of that going on during the subject of this post.

After the walls were painted a bright white, the old cornice was looking a little worse for wear. The horribly nicotine stained paint wasn't overly visible against the horrible wallpaper but now it stuck out like a City banker at a Labour party convention.

Before I could tackle the paint, first I needed to patch up all the cracks - of which there were many.

I tried the Screw Fix plaster filler which came highly recommended and some standard Polyfilla.

We really wanted to keep the original plaster cornicing to retain some of the original charm of the room. But it definitely needed some TLC. This is what I had to contend with .. times about 10.

The cracks first needed to be expanded. This may sound a bit strange but I had to take a stanley knife to the cracks to expand them even further. This then allows the plaster crack filler enough space to get into the crack and also something to bond to. 

I'm not joking about having about 10 of these to get through.

The Screw Fix stuff really worked a charm. Goes into the calking gun so it's easy to apply and is completely sandable and paintable. The only gripe is that it does shrink - even though it says it won't. But still I highly recommend it. My only advice is to put a little extra into the crack and leave it proud to be sanded down later.

In the corner, there was a larger gap vs a crack. This was left by the sparkie when he was running the light switch cable. The Polyfilla was a better option here. 

The filling was followed the next day by sanding, and sanding, and sanding. At one point I think I had completely removed my fingerprints. I tried my Tom Saywer trick (see post) but I think Care and the kids were now on to me. Eventually I got there and I had to admit that the results looked good. And no swearing yet.

All I had to do now was put on a little paint and it would be all good.

So I put on a coat of paint. ..

Followed by another coat of paint...

And another ..

And another ... But ..

No matter how much white I put on the trim, the result was always off white. The nicotine kept bleeding through. 

$£##8@!!!!!!

I had to go with the tough stuff .. Zinsser Cover Stain. This stuff is nasty and contains all sorts of laquers etc. But apparently it does the trick on nicotine (and the oil sector needs all the support it can get at the moment)

The stuff smelled up the entire house and I'm sure I shouldn't have been up a ladder when I was applying it. But the hallucinations did keep me entertained for a while :)

In the end, the stuff worked like it said it would. A couple coats of Dulux on top and the trim looked exactly as I hoped ..

Day 683: Whitewashin'

So what do you do with fresh plaster. The answer is nothing. Give it as long to dry as possible. We gave it about 2 weeks before Carolyn insisted on getting her sitting room back. We grabbed a new bucket of ScrewFix's finest new plaster paint. This was the stuff we used on the kitchen and it worked a charm. Below is the rest of the kit - an ever growing stock of poles, trays, liners and brushes. Every time we paint something I feel the need to pick up something new. 

First step was the cut in .. basically painting all the tricky parts with a smaller paint brush before moving on to the roller to move a bit quicker.

Now some people enjoy painting ... they are typically called "artists" but for the rest of us it's not the most interesting of chores. However, in painting the room, I had a bit of a Tom Sawyer moment .. For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, click the link below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xZm2UOam74

The dialogue went something like .. 

"Daddy what are you doing?"
"Painting"
"Can I do some painting?"
"I don't know, it's very tricky to get right. And I'm very picky with my painting"
"WAAAAAAAAAA!"
"OK, OK, only if you are really careful"
(add a second kid and a wife, with roughly the same dialogue)

And before you knew it, I had a small army painting the room white.

And the pink room was now a white room. With a lovely brownish trim across the top.. But that is the subject of a future post.

Day 677: The pink room

Long time, no post. Before you think that we've been neglecting our DIY obligations, let me tell you that things on the Surbubiton project have been progressing. Things on suburbitonproject.blogspot.co.uk have however been neglected. I think our blogger should get the sack ...

So onto .. er .. um .. September....

We just returned from holiday in Canada to a freshly plastered lounge.. The walls were pink and smooth and much, much less cracky. There were apparently some drama moments with the plastering, but that's another story.

The plaster was still a bit wet in some areas, so we'll need to leave it be for a bit longer to dry. I did however need to clear out all the plaster from the light and power sockets in order to get things plugged back in. A little TLC with a Stanley knife and this was quickly sorted.

The challenge now is how long we can bear having a pink room .. I suspect my stamina is longer than Carolyn's.