Sunday 11th July, 2010

I'ts plastered!

In the nicest way possible of course vbg!  Having all the pieces prepared the carcass of the house went together really smoothly, and the dry fit made it so much easier to know where everything was supposed to go.

That gap between the wall and the floor that I was worried about wasn't really a gap there, but the wall of the annexe bit does project beyond the floor and the side wall and I'm not sure at this stage whether that is supposed to happen or not.  So I've just left it for now.  I dry fitted the roof and it fitted perfectly - not a gap in sight.

Aging and weathering the trims was fun - I took to them with a little screwdriver as per instructions and chipped, scraped and sliced away.  Then I sanded the trims over again to merge it all a bit more. I think they look pretty good.

Next step was to attach the lower chimney and the apex trim and the cottage is certainly taking on character.  Each project I do is quite different really and each has its own charm - I fall in love with every one as I do it, and keep loving them afterwoods too, which is the real test

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Then I got down to plastering.  Taped off the edges with masking tape, and did a section at a time with the Elmer's Carpenter's Woodfiller provided in the kit.  It's white, and spreads easily with a spatula.  For small areas such as around the roof and chimney, which are difficult to reach, I used a long narrow craft stick.  I also found that dipping the tool into water occasionally helped.  And to keep the spatula clean all it took was to dip it into the water and wipe it off on a tissue.  I really enjoyed doing this step and it feels that things really are a'movin now!

I'm out for the day but tonight I'm looking forward to doing the next step!  Things will be progressing for sure, so watch this space.