We're Plastered

The plasterboard was hung and the plasterers came and plastered us. Now we are plastered.

In more ways than one.  They left all the scraps.  I guess it is cheaper for us to dump them than for us to pay them to cart everything away.  But it was two loads in the Lee's truck to the dump, and that is a lot of scrap.  The hardest part is cleaning up after we hauled all the board to the dump.  There is plaster everywhere.  Lee swept up the big stuff. 

   

I did a closer sweep and then used the ShopVac to vacuum the whole floor.  I took particular care to vacuum under the edges.

Now we are mopping.  Mopping and scraping.  It seems the little clumps of plaster that fell to the floor have now hardened to the point that we have to scrape them off.  We USED to have a scraping tool.  We left that in California because we were buying a new house and would never need THAT again. So we are using a hoe.  Then we mop.  We, meaning I.

   

It's not fun working in 80 percent humidity.  And that is after two days of drying before we checked.

When I mop a section, the mop does what it is supposed to do and picks up loose plaster.  When I rinse it,  I then have a bucket of plaster water which I then use to mop the next section.  Oops.  Gotta take the dirty bucket up to dump it and get a clean bucket of hot water and take it back down to the basement.  Up and down, up and down.

   

Lots of stairs and a few blisters.  I would try to tell you it is because I am working so hard.  But in reality it is probably because I haven't been working for quite some time and I lost all my calluses.

   

It is looking better, but I will need to rinse it a few times before I will be even close to happy.  Why mop a construction site, you say?  Well, partly because every thing we step in is being tracked upstairs where we LIVE.  Another reason is I don't want lumps under the carpet and plaster dust working its way up through the new carpet wehn we install it.

   

Our next project is hiring someone to paint the ceiling.  I don't like the idea of working above my head and I imagine all kinds of shoulder and neck pain.  I plan on painting the rest.  I PLAN on it.  We'll see how it goes.  There is no time frame in which I have to finish, so I can take my time, but once you get a roller full of paint it makes sense to get a good portion of wall painted before you throw it away.

It IS a lot of work, but it is starting to look like real rooms and I am getting excited.