When I was outside, scything my way across the front garden, I heard the unmistakable sound of DIY coming from indoors. So I popped inside, just in time to catch the Fella wielding his crow bar:
Going, going, gone..! It is possible that I shouldn't be so irreverent about an original, mid century architectural feature? The fella bought his house from the family who built it (themselves) in 1949 and when he took off the final (i.e. the first) plank of pine cladding, he found a plank marked up with the name of the owner, who built the house and a date - 1952.
However, as much as it is central to the British psyche (well, mine at least) to preserve original house features, the pine cladding in the living room had darkened to the point where it, and the green paint on the walls, was making the whole room feel very dingy. When questioned about the pine cladding, the Fella said (and he has owned this house for about 20 years), "I hate it. I have never liked it. I have always wanted to take it down."
So goodbye pine cladding and hello drywall (plasterboard):
Here it is sporting its first coat of mud (plaster). Apparently, the wall needs a further two coats of plaster (mud) and it has to be sanded between each coat - so the fun is set to continue this week.
Now, if you do not mind excusing me for a moment - I just need to nip off to ICI Paints (Dulux) to get a couple more paint samples mixed up!
1 comment:
Wow - that looks so much better without the cladding. Did I ever tell you about our fireplace with the fake brick wallpaper and the ornamental copper flue when we first moved in!
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