Plasterer is Here

In preparation for the messy business of plastering we decided to move as much stuff out of the kitchen as possible.  With Victoria's help, plus a sack truck borrowed from Mum & Dad I managed to move the dishwasher to the garage (for sale on a local facebook page), the fridge and freezer into the hall and even the very heavy (and rare these days) Dyson washing machine into the dining room.  Here is the brilliant sack truck :

and the relocated fridge and freezer, ready to greet visitors right by the front door :

It has been another stressful couple of days getting ready for the plastering.  Hacking off the remaining old plaster took, surprise surprise, longer than I expected, but a day off, a long lunchbreak from work and an evening shift got it done just in time :

The plasterer came to drop some gear off yesterday afternoon and was a little unhappy with the cabling.  The electrician had used plastic sleeving and had embedded it in the old plaster, secured with angled screws.  Once I had removed the plaster, a lot of the screws ended up anchored in thin air, so the cabling wasn't very secure.  It also sat very high at some points, because of its infexibility and the uneven nature of the wall.  The plasterer had suggested removing the sleeving and burying the bare wires in the wall.  I checked the wiring regs and surprisingly this seems to be permitted.  Some google searches revealed a school of thought that it is a bad idea, because plaster rots the cable's insulation, and another school saying this only applies to old fashioned lime plasters.  In the end I called up the electrician for advice.  He was incredibly helpful.  He wasn't keen on the idea of removing the sleeving, and within an hour, at 5pm, he came over and re-secured everything, where necessary, channeling away high points of the wall, or slightly re-routing cables to get them "lower" to the stone.  I was impressed.

You will have noticed that I have not dropped the plaster from the ceiling.  This has been overlaid with plasterboard, which was the first job of the day.  He now has a hoist to help with this.  A tripod base on wheels, extending centre section, and a pair of arms to support the board.  It is raised by turning a capstan wheel.  Simple but effective :

As usual with these sort of things - he doesn't know how he ever managed without it.