Further Procrastination Can Wait Until Tomorrow...

A particularly awkward and dirty job has been waiting for us to admit that we can see it waiting. Because we had family visiting in the summer, we pretended the kitchen was ready to use and moved in. But it wasn't, and we've been avoiding eye contact with the ceiling. The plasterboard ceiling had been taped and jointed once, but needed a rubdown and second fill. But worse than that, the exposed beams needed to have the coke scraped off.

This morning, we stripped the kitchen of all of its contents, located the goggles and masks, brought in the step ladders, and began. It's unpleasant to work above your head, as everything you dislodge showers onto you and into your clothing. It also hurts your arm muscles after four hours.

Sandpaper was effective for the plaster, but didn't touch the cokey beams, so we were able to get a bit more use out of the little angled paint stripping tool. We made a mess, and it's still there now. We're going to go out for dinner... 

We're also stripping the chalk paint and other coatings from the big chimney breast beam. For that job, we're utilising the electric grinder. It spews out debris at such an extravagant rate, that we had to open up the doors and windows to create a through draught, just so that there was air available to suck in through our masks.

We'll continue tomorrow...