DIY – Home Remodeling

Week 17

I still haven’t recovered from the experience with the plasterer. He’s done such an awful job – I spent the last ten days rectifying his work. I’m now glad that I didn’t pay him  – well, actually, he just walked out on me without waiting for payment. He got pissed off with me because
a, I dared to complain about the quality of his workmanship,
b, I would only pay him for the work he’d completed  – not for the full project. I suspected that, given point a) he would not come back to finish thing off..

Anyway, off he went – so I had to learn to plaster. Well, it’s not a big deal really. Why do builders charge so much for it? Ok, it’s a specialist skill, but not something for which you need a PhD or high IQ or any kind of special training. In fact I know people with PhD and countless degrees who make less money than plasterers. This is absolutely scandalous.

To plaster you need a bit of common sense and a fast action with your arm. That is it. The rest is down to experience. Obviously, first you make a huge mess of things, but then you sand back – skim over, sand back – skim over… Again and again. It’s best to experiment in a small area.

As far as the dado rails were concerned, I just used a really fine filler – having first sanded back the glue marks on the plaster board and filled the holes with rough filler. Then I skimmed over these areas with the fine filler. Then sanded it again with an extremely smooth sand-paper. I did the same around the skirting –  only the filling, I’ll do the smoothing after the floor is laid. But this job is very time-consuming – no wonder the plasterer didn’t want to do it. Builders these days only agree to do quick and easy jobs – and charge £40-80 an hour for the privilege. If you ask them to do something fiddly or time-consuming – they’re either disinclined to do it or tell you that it can’t be done. Or, if they do or agree to do it but it’s done sloppily. This is why I’m doing more and more things myself. What’s the point of getting a builder? I have to pay them for the job, then argue with them about the spec or the quality, and then end up having to  re-do or rectify their work!

The appliances have arrived today. The chimney hood is just far too big. I’ll have to send it back. I’ve chosen another one on the net, from the same online store, but they won’t be able to deliver it until September because all Italian factories close down for the whole of August! Unbelievable! Also, they are going to charge me £65.00 for the swap. I’m irritated with myself, as I should have intuitively known that a 90cm hood is too big for a 60cm hob. I just wanted to make a visual statement – but this thing is just a huge monster dominating the kitchen. Very ugly!

We still don’t have any water in the kitchen. But we discovered a brilliant little restaurant across the road, where we can get our daily take-away dinner. Who needs a kitchen really?