Brunswick Road 09 - Plastering, Plumbing, Garden Design

Penrith, Cumbria. January-2022.

Another month of two steps forward, one step back.

We were due to have the kitchen and utility rooms plastered the second week of January but the plasterer tested positive for Covid. Instead of pushing all his other jobs back he dropped us. We suspect that he thought it better to disappoint one customer than his entire pipeline of works.

We made an emergency call to the builder we used on Benson Row who came to the rescue with some weekend working! To speed up the process I had to do some prep on the back wall, prising off the old plaster. That wall backs on to our shed and is pretty cold. 

The walls part plastered. As part of the re-plastering they put in insulated plaster board on the back and left hand walls of the utility room. To ensure adhesion of the plaster the walls are first painted with blue grit plaster bonding agent as you can see on the window wall.

Once the blue grit was dry, the builder came back to do the skim coat.

Next the plumber has to remove the grey pipes running across the floor and join up new and old pipes to feed the new sink and dishwasher plus install upright pipes to feed the shower. We are kicking ourselves that we didn't get those done when the boiler was re-sited. Our fitter's high-tech specification schematic for the shower supply:

After that some minor electrical works are planned which means I have to paint the walls before they reinstate all the sockets and put the underfloor heating controller in place. And finally the kitchen fitter can fit the kitchen!

In the front garden Mary has been a real Trojan. The before - a sort of very weedy rockery:

She weeded and dug it over. Luckily one of our neighbours could make use of the spare white stones and took them away that same evening making it easier to work around the small space. Together we moved the extremely heavy sundial (a 50th birthday present from my parents) up from the front path to the corner where I had dug out some most stubborn shrub roots.

Mary decided that the front garden should be a herb bed so it is now planted up with bay, rosemary, hyssop, oregano, thyme plus some trailing plants to cover the ugly gas meter box. Still waiting for other herbs to be available including sage and lavenders.

Like the kitchen "It will be lovely when it is finished".