Plastering, again
Jul. 22nd, 2010 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shermaramaSometimes, in the world of DIY, you learn things the hard way. Yesterday I learnt, the hard way, that when plaster has been open for too long, and you attempt to use it, it doesn't work properly, i.e., it gets very hot and sets in a tiny fraction of its normal working time. I got it off the tools in time before it set solid but there's a bucket here that's no good for anything any more. Fortunately there was still time to send Chris off to B&Q to get some replacement stuff so I could still do the job that needed doing, which is some repairs to the room I'll eventually have to stop calling Tom's room. The plaster wasn't even out of date, it was dated for July, but I bought it in February and it's been open since then, so. Cautionary tale for you there.
Meanwhile, there are new additions to the list of kitchen equipment that I have co-opted for the purpose of plastering. I couldn't find the old wooden chopping board I was using as a hawk before so I used another old wooden one, the old washing-up bowl became a good replacement plaster bucket, and my palette knife, as in the one I was using last week for spreading chocolate cream around on a meringue-based chocolate cherry cake-like assembly, came in very useful for plastering the narrow strip alongside the sash window. The whole thing really isn't my best plastering work, given the confined space in the room, trying to manipulate a plastering trowel into the right position to swipe the plaster into the right place at the extreme end of the range of your fingers without spilling any en route or getting your shoulder caught up against the shelf so that you can't actually do the swiping bit properly, but it's a lot better than what was there before.
Meanwhile, there are new additions to the list of kitchen equipment that I have co-opted for the purpose of plastering. I couldn't find the old wooden chopping board I was using as a hawk before so I used another old wooden one, the old washing-up bowl became a good replacement plaster bucket, and my palette knife, as in the one I was using last week for spreading chocolate cream around on a meringue-based chocolate cherry cake-like assembly, came in very useful for plastering the narrow strip alongside the sash window. The whole thing really isn't my best plastering work, given the confined space in the room, trying to manipulate a plastering trowel into the right position to swipe the plaster into the right place at the extreme end of the range of your fingers without spilling any en route or getting your shoulder caught up against the shelf so that you can't actually do the swiping bit properly, but it's a lot better than what was there before.