Renovation Project - Painting new plaster

Renovation Project - Painting new plaster

It’s a big day, we are going to view the suites, we have the sat nav at the ready and set off, it feels strange driving towards the residential area of Morlaix and not the building merchants.

We find it as we drive past and as it is on a small road we take a small detour around some back streets and come back to it again.

The house looks tiny, but as we are invited in, it is like a tardis, (think Dr Who) it is absolutely amazing the guy has pretty much rebuilt it and it is so modern, then we see the suites, they are just what we wanted and they look like new, hooray we have found our new suites.

We arrange to collect them tomorrow morning as we will need to hire a van, and no, neither of them speak English!

When we get back to the house we make a start on painting the walls in the living room, now we are going to have a suite we don’t want white paint splashing on them!

We first use a primer coat of paint, this is a coat of emulsion that is watered down, this seals the new plaster and prevents the paint from peeling, which can happen if you use a thick coat and haven’t removed all of the dust. You can buy a specialised undercoat paint, but this is just spending lots of money on a watered down version of your paint (doesn’t make much sense really does it?)

We both have our own jobs through this aspect, John rollers the walls and the ceiling and I knock in, this is like cutting in but you do not need to take as much care, as the walls and ceiling are both going to be white.

The ceiling above the windows is a lot harder and requires much more care as the lintels will remain wood, this is where it is called cutting in (and this takes much longer).

If you have to do this and get the job of cutting in, it will look like you have done bugger all, as it takes around the same amount of time to cut in as it does to roller all of the ceiling and walls!

Because it is so thin it doesn’t take very long to dry and we can add the second coat. I have to pop to the shop part way through the second coat and when I walk in the house the difference is unbelievable, we are really getting a living room and tomorrow we will actually be able to sit down in comfort. It’s at moments like these, that, if my life was a musical, we would now burst into song, and all of the chorus dancers would spring in to view, singing and dancing along to there’s no business like show business, I know it’s not really a house song, but it does let you know how I feel, (I bet you couldn’t help singing the first two lines then could you?)

The day is over the world is a happy place and we’re off to bed, see you in the morning.

Top tips

• Always use a primer coat on new plaster
• Beware expensive primer coats
• Know your musicals