That 'big project' I've been banging on about for a few years now....

[James Harrison]

You are truly indefatigable Mr Harrison, as well as very, very talented of course.

Thank you (though I'm not sure it's not just my being stoic, pig-headed and stubborn, rather than indefatigable).

This week, progressed has slowed somewhat because I was indulging one of my other hobbies.  A proof of what I've always said - I can do my house, or I can do my hobbies, but not both. 



I did manage to skim the front wall as far as I was planning to.



And I also screwed down some loose floorboards.

Additionally I bought the new radiator I'd been planning - so that's one less thing on the list. 
I still think there is a reasonable chance of getting this next patch of wall finished before I hit the first anniversary of starting the bedroom (October 16th or 17th), but I don't think I'm going to hit my target of completing it this year. 

[James Harrison]

A week or two ago I was fighting off a cold and really didn't feel like doing much at all.  When that had done its thing though, I was able to push on.  So whilst last week I only stripped the skirting board, this week I've stained it, painted the wall and started to strip down the floorboards. 





With a week off work, I'm hoping I can really push ahead and get this section finished.  Then everything has to move again so I can access the final corner. 

[James Harrison]

Well, tomorrow marks the first anniversary of my starting to mess with the master bedroom.  Had I known what I was letting myself in for, I might have just left well alone.

But, having made a mess of it I'd no alternative than to put it right again, and as I've had a week off work I've been progressing toward that end. 



Firstly, what I've referred to as Phase 3 has been finished off.  As much of the front wall as I can currently reach has been painted, the cream window surround has been reinstated and caulked, and the floorboards along the front of the room have been sanded down and restained. 



Another nice heavy cast iron radiator has found its way into the house and been installed in the bedroom (just in time for the Winter chill to start coming in).



And the chimneybreast has been re-skimmed.  Tomorrow, the wardrobe moves - and that clears the way to access the final corner and get the walls finished.

[James Harrison]

The wardrobe was moved and.... wow!  Suddenly the room feels about twice the size. 



Work can now begin on that final corner.  I have ideas for what I want to put in that alcove eventually.

[James Harrison]

Work on the final corner began just as soon as I could get into it. 



A week after the wardrobe was moved, all of the wallpaper had been stripped and all of the walls had been skimmed. 



A few days after that, the last of the carpet was torn up (but I'm keeping it in place at the moment as a dropcloth) and the last lengths of skirting board had been stripped of paint. 



And now they've been stained.  That's going to need a day or two to dry, so I can't do anything with the walls until at least tomorrow evening.  Meantime I guess there's a lot of floorboards still need sanding down.

[James Harrison]

Progress this week...







The walls are finished! 

Now onto sanding and staining the floorboards, and dealing with the floor generally.  This (I think) has a very good chance of being finished before Christmas. 

[Hez]

Looking Good

[Sir Henry]

Looking good indeed! Well done.

Being of a generally silly disposition, I would look at putting a framed Muybridge still in each of the panels on the wall, making up a complete cycle. 

[James Harrison]

Looking Good

Thank you!

Looking good indeed! Well done.

Being of a generally silly disposition, I would look at putting a framed Muybridge still in each of the panels on the wall, making up a complete cycle. 

That's a really good idea (and one I hadn't thought of).  I have one or two thoughts about the panels but nothing definite yet, I might add that one to the list of possibilities.

[James Harrison]

This week my focus has been on the floorboards. Some patches of the floor (mostly along the edges) had been done in stages as I finished each wall, but obviously that still leaves the big section in the middle. 

I started with the patch in front of the fireplace, sanding this (and as far under that side of the bed as I can reach) and then staining it. 



Then I did a similar strip on the other side of the room.



I didn't go under the bed here because I didn't have the space - everything that was stored on the fireplace side had had to be relocated to this side.  In any case, my goal in doing this particular bit wasn't to get as much done as possible in one or two nights, but rather to reach a point where some loose floorboards on this side could finally be screwed down. 

And then with those two bits stained, I realised I'd managed to literally paint myself into a corner.  I've stained all around my bed, with a woodstain that takes anywhere between 12 hours and 2 days to fully dry.  At 7 o'clock in the evening.  Err... now how to get into bed without traipsing through that lot...

When it had all dried out I moved into the newly- uncovered corner and sanded that down, and then started staining. 



At this point my tin of woodstain ran out, and although I bought new tin of exactly the same brand, the new tin seems a lot thinner and runnier.  Tonally the two match, but in terms of actual colour, I think it's going to need at least two and probably more like three coats.  Luckily most of what needs to be stained now  is not my only means of access to any given part of the room. 

[J. Wilhelm]

This week my focus has been on the floorboards. Some patches of the floor (mostly along the edges) had been done in stages as I finished each wall, but obviously that still leaves the big section in the middle. 

I started with the patch in front of the fireplace, sanding this (and as far under that side of the bed as I can reach) and then staining it. 



Then I did a similar strip on the other side of the room.



I didn't go under the bed here because I didn't have the space - everything that was stored on the fireplace side had had to be relocated to this side.  In any case, my goal in doing this particular bit wasn't to get as much done as possible in one or two nights, but rather to reach a point where some loose floorboards on this side could finally be screwed down. 

And then with those two bits stained, I realised I'd managed to literally paint myself into a corner.  I've stained all around my bed, with a woodstain that takes anywhere between 12 hours and 2 days to fully dry.  At 7 o'clock in the evening.  Err... now how to get into bed without traipsing through that lot...

When it had all dried out I moved into the newly- uncovered corner and sanded that down, and then started staining. 



At this point my tin of woodstain ran out, and although I bought new tin of exactly the same brand, the new tin seems a lot thinner and runnier.  Tonally the two match, but in terms of actual colour, I think it's going to need at least two and probably more like three coats.  Luckily most of what needs to be stained now  is not my only means of access to any given part of the room. 

Well, it's very simple! You can avoid getting trapped in a corner by following the Greystoke Method:

Just install a temporary system of cables or ropes attached to ceiling rafters (Clayton Harness), and you can move in or out of the zone,Tarzan style!

[Madasasteamfish]

This week my focus has been on the floorboards. Some patches of the floor (mostly along the edges) had been done in stages as I finished each wall, but obviously that still leaves the big section in the middle. 

I started with the patch in front of the fireplace, sanding this (and as far under that side of the bed as I can reach) and then staining it. 



Then I did a similar strip on the other side of the room.



I didn't go under the bed here because I didn't have the space - everything that was stored on the fireplace side had had to be relocated to this side.  In any case, my goal in doing this particular bit wasn't to get as much done as possible in one or two nights, but rather to reach a point where some loose floorboards on this side could finally be screwed down. 

And then with those two bits stained, I realised I'd managed to literally paint myself into a corner.  I've stained all around my bed, with a woodstain that takes anywhere between 12 hours and 2 days to fully dry.  At 7 o'clock in the evening.  Err... now how to get into bed without traipsing through that lot...

When it had all dried out I moved into the newly- uncovered corner and sanded that down, and then started staining. 



At this point my tin of woodstain ran out, and although I bought new tin of exactly the same brand, the new tin seems a lot thinner and runnier.  Tonally the two match, but in terms of actual colour, I think it's going to need at least two and probably more like three coats.  Luckily most of what needs to be stained now  is not my only means of access to any given part of the room. 

Well, it's very simple! You can avoid getting trapped in a corner by following the Greystoke Method:

Just install a temporary system of cables or ropes attached to ceiling rafters (Clayton Harness), and you can move in or out of the zone,Tarzan style!

Normally I would suggest a Jet pack, but given the likely result with the presumed fumes from the stain, perhaps a small trebuchet to fling yourself to and from the bed would suffice?

[James Harrison]

Well, it's very simple! You can avoid getting trapped in a corner by following the Greystoke Method:

Just install a temporary system of cables or ropes attached to ceiling rafters (Clayton Harness), and you can move in or out of the zone,Tarzan style!

Normally I would suggest a Jet pack, but given the likely result with the presumed fumes from the stain, perhaps a small trebuchet to fling yourself to and from the bed would suffice?

I tried pole vaulting, but it didn't go well 

[James Harrison]

This week has, in large part, been characterised by ticking things off the to-do list. 

#1. The floor has now been completely stained, I can move furniture back to where it should be.  That's a big achievement. 



#2.  Whilst I had the woodstain out, I decided the bedroom door had been in its plain timber state for quite long enough - 2 or 3 years now since it was fitted - so I did something about it. 



#3.  I laid the hearth tiles.  These have got to be left a few days now to dry out, and then I can think about grouting them. 



#4. Something out of left field - I bought and built a new dining table and chairs, which completes the look for that space.  This is actually the first room where I'm now thinking that there is nothing more left to do or anything which needs finishing off. 

[James Harrison]

And so, with a whimper rather than a bang, the curtain comes down on the 2025 Programme.



I'm now going to put all the tools away, clean up the messes that have been accumulating during the work, and have a bit of a break from it. 

And - maybe - enjoy now having four rooms roughly licked into shape. 

[Sir Henry]

It looks like you missed out the word 'well-deserved' in that post.

Congratulations and enjoy the break.

[Madasasteamfish]

It looks like you missed out the word 'well-deserved' in that post.

Congratulations and enjoy the break.

Hear hear.

Well done sir!

[James Harrison]

Thank you both.

Naturally, the 2025 Programme hadn't quite finished...

Once I'd cleared away all of the tools and materials that had taken up residence in the bedroom (and on the kitchen work surfaces) over the course of the year, and cleaned up where they'd been sitting, I decided to re-hang the bedroom prints and paintings.  And also introduce a few new bits. 



Pictures on a cream wall to... pictures on a cream wall (but it's a slightly different shade of cream, he cries) in the course of about 13 months. 



Last Christmas I received a pair of Mackintosh-style mirrors from my brothers.  Those have now found their home. 

So that's the bedroom now sitting at approximately the 90% mark.

And then, because it's dark and wet and cold and miserable, it felt just the perfect time to start some investigation work on the concrete slab in the paddock. 



Conclusion?  Breaking the whole lot out is going to be back-breaking. 

[Sorontar]

Reminds me of my teenage years, when my father got my brother and me to break up the concrete walkway out of the front of our house. First time I ever used a mattock. I imagine you will need a sledgehammer or jackhammer as well.

[James Harrison]

I started with a clawhammer and a bolster chisel.  I quickly resorted to a hammer drill with a chisel attachment, and even then it was hard-going. 

I think it can be done, but it would take a long time and another concern would be the sheer volume of rubble.  That's not going away in a hurry, unless I hire a skip.  And the moment I do that then the whole job becomes a rush thing because the longer the skip's here, the more I'm paying in rental charges. 

I have other thoughts about the boundary fence too and if I proceed with those then getting the slab up becomes a 'needs to be done to do the other thing'.  Lots to think about there and a number of moving parts to get into alignment. 

[Hez]

STOP! 
See above - well deserved rest.  then you can think about the concrete.
The bedroom looks lovely, very welcoming and calm.

[James Harrison]

STOP! 
See above - well deserved rest.  then you can think about the concrete.
The bedroom looks lovely, very welcoming and calm.

Don't worry - it was, as I say, just a bit of investigation work.  I'm not about to launch into ripping the whole lot out right now. 

Thank you for the kind comment about the bedroom.  I do have ideas how to finish it off but I'm in two minds whether it might not be just too much. 

[James Harrison]

Time for a debrief, I think.

Last December I set the goals as being

- Clean up and repaint the front windows
- Remove pebbledash from the side elevation
- Remove paint from masonry on the kitchen wall
- Redecorate the master bedroom
- Break out the concrete patio

Of those, we can cross off the pebbledash.  We can say the paint removal on the kitchen wall is in progress.  And we can show that the bedroom has been progressed to my 90% 'move on to something else' target.

The front windows have been deferred, and aside from the initial investigation work (which also has the benefit of redirecting gutter overflow away from the house), the concrete patio is still there. 

In honesty, I think my goals last year were just a little too much.  Removal of the pebbledash was an 'easy' fix, though laborious, but then removing the paint quickly turned into scraping away at the bricks with a scalpel for hours and hours.  And of course whilst I was doing that for weeks on end, the bedroom just didn't go anywhere...  I've got the bricks half-done but eventually I came to the conclusion that each evening's result didn't repay the effort.  I'm going to let time and the Winter do some of the work for me on that front. 

Speaking of the bedroom, I didn't give much thought to the practicalities of redecorating whilst living in it.  Consequently 20 minutes at the start and end of each work session had to be given over to moving things around to gain access to the workspace, and then moving them back again.  That added - hours and days - to the job.  It also meant that by the time I was starting work on it I was already getting pretty tired of the caper. 

We've also got to address that the room took much, much longer than I was planning.  The old wallpaper came down only because I managed to damage part of it when I was cleaning up the woodwork.  Then I found that a large chunk of the room retained lime plaster (not original, granted, but still historic fabric that I wanted to retain) and the coarse grainy nature of that finish encouraged me to re-paper the room.  Well, we all know how that went.  And when that failed - miserably - I had to start reskimming the walls.  Why the paper fell down repeatedly I think can be attributed to a few reasons;
1. I was probably parsimonious with the paste when sizing the walls
2. Ditto with the paste when pasting the paper
3. The plaster came off with the paper - maybe it lacked the strength to hold the paper to the wall.

It would have been a lot quicker to call a plasterer in to do the reskimming, but that just wasn't an option because I couldn't have the whole room done at once.  I think there are many things I'd do very differently if I did that again, because plastering a whole room with gypsum filler and old credit cards is no fun at all.

One big mistake, I think, was that I launched into the bedroom project last September / October, straight after finishing the bathroom.  Unlike previous years, I didn't allow myself a few months to take a break and when things started to become more involved with the bedroom, that started to show.  The enthusiasm and the get up and go... got up and went... and whereas on previous projects I was spending all day or several hours on something, with the bedroom I found that after an hour or so I was done and the thing was feeling more like a chore.  So that's one thing I'm taking away from this.

Using non-vinyl emulsion was more expensive but I can tell the difference between the bedroom and the sitting room / dining room.  I'll certainly be using that again. 

I'm also finding now that 2/3 of the house has been redecorated in my own style, that my vision is coming to life.  It's nice now, being able to start thinking more about finishing touches rather than the big things.