Whitewashing and window-washing

Blimey!  Nearly a whole week since I last wrote anything - sorry!  We've been fairly busy.  On Monday we went to Peterborough to collect Laura who has now packed up her old life into plastic boxes (quite a lot of plastic boxes) to be stored in various lofts and barns across the country.  On Sunday we are taking her to Scotland to start her new life as a Buddhist nun at Samye Ling (near Lockerbie).  In the meantime, we have put her to work here!  Bob has passed on his new-found skimming skills to the next generation.  She did really well and it has been inspected by Phil the Plaster and approved . . . . pity it's going to be hidden by the sink and tiles!  So, we have now skimmed the whole of the bedroom ceiling and half the walls, all the en-suite except one ceiling section, all of the landing, all the bathroom, all the utility room, half the kitchen walls and several kitchen ceiling sections.



A rare photo of us working together - synchronised
skimming (is that an olympic sport?)



We have also had a go at traditional whitewash - now that is a bit weird!  You scoop the putty lime out of the tub (where it is covered in water), mix it with a bit of water and it seems to take ages to get rid of the lumps.  You then seive the whole lot into another bucket and mix in some more water and then seive it again back into the first bucket.  Now, If you've just seived it once, you wouldn't expect there to be any lumps in it would you?  But, as if by magic, lumps appear and you have to push them through again.  You then add water until it looks like milk (we decided it would be full-fat because skimmed hadn't been invented in the days of limewash).  You then dampen down the walls with water and paint the 'milk' on.  It looks awfully thin and see-through, but as it dries it gradually goes a bit more solid looking . . . .  not very solid I have to say, but apparently the key to good limewashing is lots of thin coats, so we'll see.  We did the second coat today and, as soon as you spray it, it goes see-through again and you can't really tell where you've been.  I guess the theory is that it is gradually building up a solid coat.  We have also finished putting the strips of plasterboard on the kitchen ceiling between the new oak beams.  Just one more bit to do, but we can't work out how to attach it.  Most of them are screwed onto battens attached to the oak, a few have pipes and cables running along the oak and so we have had to improvise brackets out of bits of the metal studwork we used in the end bedroom, but this section is next to a random stone wall, narrow and has pipes and cables running along the wall.  Mmmmm, not easy to attach directly to the stone at the best of times, but with limited space for drilling and pipes to avoid as well it's a bit awkward.  No doubt we'll think of something.

Laura and I had a bit of a laugh this afternoon trying to clean the rooflight windows which had got filthy (almost green) over the winter.  A while ago we went to the Grand Designs Show at the NEC and impulse bought a magnetic window cleaner.  I knew it would be really awkward to get to the rooflights so it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Basically there are two very strong magnets (warnings all over saying not to put them together without glass between because they'd mysteriously pull your fingers in and trap them forever or something).  Each has a sponge at one end and a rubber blade at the other, so you dip them in soapy water, put one on the outside and the other on the inside and as you move the inside one around the other follows. the sponge end cleans and the blade follows and dries.  Probably excellent on big windows, but the glass in our rooflights is only slighty wider than the cleaner, so not much room for whizzing around scrubbing clean, but it's do-able.  Now we got these traditional rooflights from the 'Cast Iron Rooflight Company' and lovely they are too, but the name should have given me a clue!  When I tried to put the window cleaner on the outside of the glass it attached itself to the iron frame and , with soapy water running down my arm and my wrist being squashed by the wieght of the rooflight (haven't attached the winders for holding them open yet), it was jolly difficult to pull it off.  Very funny though!  Then when we'd finished they attached themselves to the stepladder and while they were drying on the draining board the tea caddy tin slid up and attached itself!  We'll have to watch these I can see!  Oh, you're not supposed to use them if you have a pacemaker fitted as they'll re-set it!