Plastering tips and frustration

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday; I came down with a kicking migraine on Monday night and spent all of yesterday in a dark room resting up trying to sort my vision out.

Migraine face

So it's a general update today, with a few things that have been on my mind to record.

First of all, a few of the tips which we were given at the plastering; just to write these down for posterity.

1. When mixing your plaster, pull the mixer out to create a tunnel in the mix. If, when you kick the side of the bucket, half of the tunnel falls in then you have the correct consistency.
2. If possible try to put the correct amount of water in your mixing bucket before adding the plaster powder as this will help to avoid lumpiness in your mix.
3. When trying to evaluate whether your plaster is ready for troweling off touch gently with the tips of your fingers. You are aiming for "sticky and tacky". The tip was that if the plaster pulls away and at all in little peaks, it is too wet. It should feel sticky but not follow your finger away.
4. It's all in the angle of your wrist

yep....

So there you have a substantial collection of opportunities for "that's what she said"isms I shall move on.

I've heard from Lubo with apologies and with the news that yes, I definitely do need to have the PUP. I may have to think hard for the next couple of days to make my mind up about what to do... This is where my frustration at Veselka being so unreliable really comes to the fore. It is ridiculous that she couldn't operate to any fixed deadline and she is even now still delaying me as I was promised an email from her this weekend which never arrived.

I may be forced to pay Veselka something more to get the PUP information out of her.

FRUSTRATE

Julian had his electrics done over the weekend, finally, though the cost in the end was a lot more than I was quoted. I am going to be up in Keswick this weekend in him so will be able to check the work out then, make sure it is worth the amount the chap charged me. I could say more about this situation but will wait for it to be resolved; suffice to say it is not just Bulgarians who cause problems.

Frustrate.

Plastering Course Weekend Two

This weekend was the second part of the four day Beginners Plastering Course.

The finish on my first attempt

After having such a great time last weekend and feeling really confident and happy that this was something which I can definitely do I approached this weekend with some trepidation.  Beginners luck could easily explain the results the previous weekend and also the speed and skill required would be increasing as the weekend went on.

If you remember we had skimmed the ceiling and half the big wall, after having spent the first day getting used to the environment and each other and just putting plasterboard onto a framework.

My applied plaster

This weekend our task was to finish the big wall (joining this to the previously skimmed section), skim around the window (including the reveal), fill the hole we cut out for a plug socket, and then on the Sunday do an entire reskim of the whole plastered area: big wall, window wall and ceiling.

But more of that later.

His mrs washed them!

Saturday morning arrived with a groan as the alarm went off at my usual midweek time but the motivation of "doing this for Bulgaria" helped me out of bed, into the kitchen and towards my first brew of the day. When I arrived (with my overalls still dirty) there was much amusement as my mate's wife had got hole of his and he was clean again.

Such is the humour of boys and workmen.

With much less ceremony than last week we were set to to mix up a load of plaster and on with plastering the wall around the window. While this was being mixed we each went round with a scraper and took the blobs and lumps of plaster dripped from the ceiling onto the wall off.

This week we were allowed to use the slightly nicer trowel however, as I stood on my step-up and took my trowel in hand loaded with plaster I suddenly realised that I had forgotten how to hold the thing! It took two or three attempts and then suddenly it all fell back into place and the plaster started going onto the wall nicely again.

First coat, troweled up, flattened

First application, troweling up, second coat the troweling up again and flatten twice; plastering is a skill which depends upon speed of application and then being ready for when the next stages should be started. Just as it goes tacky is when you start troweling up. Flattening is slightly less time-dependent but you do NOT want to try it when the plaster has gone off too far or you will start pulling the plaster rather than smoothing it and then will have a large amount of sanding to do (which kind of defeats the object of plastering).

First around the window

When the window wall was done I went on to plastering the reveal around the window. This was rather a fun challenge as the space was very limited and the plasterboard was actually quite bowed and therefore I had to pack the curve to ensure a flat application. I actually learned a LOT from this very small step in terms of how to build up plaster into a dip and how to press it down with the correct force to ensure it is flat.

The tiling course work and Len removing it

While we were doing the plastering the tutors were going around knocking down the other walls, ripping tiles off, and generally tidying and clearing so the next course would have a space to start learning plastering. It was a sad sight to see such excellent tiling as this come smashing off the walls.

Soaked the join

After lunch we had to plaster the rest of the large wall which included joining to the half we plastered last weekend. The technique here is simple; you must wet the old plaster thoroughly and then smooth the new plaster across onto the wet area really firmly. Once you have a smooth finish you can then scrape the overlapping new plaster off to ensure a smooth join.

The large wall all plastered

The rest of the wall went on nicely and all of our techniques were now starting to come together and the results we were achieving now were making all of us feel a little better. I was still applying my first coat too thinly however my trowel angle for troweling off and flattening was much better.

The end of the day was us attempting to fill in the hole from the plug socket and learning about dot and dab which is a technique for sticking plasterboard to a wall to allow you to then easily plaster over a large area without having to render the wall.

Filling the hole ended up being a real pain - you measure a section of plasterboard slightly narrower, and slightly taller, than the gap and the push a nail through. You then load it up with plasterboard concrete and push it through the hole, while holding onto the nail. You then carefully push the nail through and hopefully the block will not fall out. This didn't quite work the first time but the second I loaded loads of the concrete stuff onto the board and held it for ages and it stayed.

So to home and much sadness watching the All Blacks beat England at rugby. Oh well.

Glue to be put on the old plaster

The next morning was even tougher to drag myself out of bed for... plastering is very physical and I was starting to ache already. Not only that, but Sunday was the day when we were doing a full reskim of the ceiling and every wall - something which had taken all of the previous two days of plastering. The thing with this is plaster goes off very much quicker when it is skimmed over old plaster and so we would have to work much faster and more efficiently than we had all through the previous days of working.

Applying the glue with the roller

The trick to plastering over old plaster is to provide a non-porous surface over the old plaster; we did this with a 3-1 mix of PVA glue and water. This was applied with a roller and then the new plaster went on a bit easier; not that it didn't go off much quicker, but we had time at least to put a load on before troweling up.

First reskim coat

First the roof and by half way through I thought my arm was going to fall off. It was a case of mind over matter and just keep lifting and spreading and trying to get as good coverage as I possibly could while moving fast as it dried so quickly (as we were warned it would). By the time the first load was up I had to go straight to the beginning and trowel it off. This in comparison with about a five minute wait for the plastering onto fresh plasterboard. A minor victory on my second coat as I managed to put too much plaster on the ceiling where I had always til this point been too stingy with my application. This was solved by a heavy handed troweling off and the spare plaster went onto someone else's ceiling who had run out.

Roof and end all done

After the first break we went onto the window wall using the same technique and then after lunch we did the entirety of the large wall which was a REALLY big challenge.

... and the big wall

I ran out of plaster and so had to start troweling off before I had finished the wall, as the applied plaster was going off so quickly. Fortunately Len, our excellent tutor, was hard at work making more mixes so we weren't short of plaster for long.

All in all this course has been excellent - I feel so much more comfortable to pick up a trowel and get involved in helping with the plastering in Bulgaria however I think I'll have to build myself some practice walls in my storage unit and keep my hand in as it is shocking how quickly you forget the techniques and how to hold the trowel etc.

Len the tutor

One other thing to say; I had a really good chat through the course with Len who has renovated a number of houses in france and was very interested in my plans for the school. Fingers crossed we'll stay in touch and he can come out and see what I am doing.

I got SOME on the walls

Cheers Len.

I have a confession to make....

... I'm pretty damn terrified of this whole thing.

Me, last night

No, really. I am.

Not all the time, not even most of the time, but every now and then all the possibilities of what others may term "failure" come flooding into my mind and I cannot help but to think on them.

What happens if, when I get there, I have another four months of planning to go through before I can do any work on the school? What if this even includes the roof! How will I cope with having to live in Julian for that long... Even worse, what if I cannot get a temporary contract for the electric and I don't even have electricity on the site?!

Then to the slightly longer term concerns such as how will I keep my motivation up through the entire period of the build, particularly if (when) there are delays caused by waiting for materials, people and approval for plans. How will I cope being out there all on my own through this process? Will the fact of being alone allow me to avoid what I need to do and result in the renovation not being done to the standard which I aspire?

This is what I need....

It is at times like these (for example last night as I was going to sleep) when I really respect what my friend has done out there.

It is from her which I draw my strength and reassurance.

It is possible, and there is no reason not to give it a go.

The other side of the coin which I challenge myself with at times like these is "What is failure?"

So what if I go out there, give this a go and realise it isn't for me. Who cares. The only failure in life is the failure to try and I am giving it a go.

These demons don't surface that often but they do surface. They will surface for you if you start to plan something like I am doing. They should be used to help you look coldly and clearly at your plans and to encourage yourself that you are not going into it blindly.

So, if you are thinking of emigrating, or even if your plans aren't as grand as that (maybe changing jobs or something) then remember; fears and worries can be used to educate yourself. Don't be scared of fear.

You can reach your promised land

And just go for it.

Default decision

The decision has been made without me really needing to make any decision at all.

I have been VERY impressed with the response times of the companies in Sofia however my concern is that I will be entering into another uncertain contract and I will find it very difficult to get anything arranged and nailed down without at least one if not two trips to their offices. This is not something which I want to take on at this time.

Unfortunately it seems that Lubo suffers from the same problems that Veselka did; he just hasn't kept to his agreed communication timetable. From promising beginnings, where Martin got back to me and said that Lubo was up for it and would be in touch by Wednesday, I have heard nothing. And that wasn't Wednesday yesterday, but Wednesday last week.

It is amazing to me that people make agreements and just don't bother keeping them, though I suppose that may reflect more on me and the fact I try to keep my word. So old fashioned I know.

This leaves me with the final choice which is to see what I can manage to achieve with the help of my friend and Bekir before I get there and pick up the rest when I arrive. I should be able to get Electric connected but first I need to get the survey done and that is in hand next week maybe. Also Bekir is going to pop in to see the chief architect for me in the next couple of weeks to finally get the understanding of what needs to happen.

The concern is if all this information I have received from Sylvia is bunkum and this lady at the Obshtina doesn't actually know what is going on either.

I still have some dealings with Veselka as I am waiting for her to send the paperwork to my friend. The last communication I got (and I will be chasing again after I post this) is that she is waiting for some progress on the PUP. I am not entirely sure why she is still doing this as I have told her to stop; the only thing I can think of is that she is waiting for the new skitza, and the application for PUP which she already sent in.

Anyway, this whole "emigrating but staying in England" thing has proven to be a difficult thing to try to do; hopefully once I am there I can be more in control of what is needed and get the approvals I need quickly. I hope it doesn't end up taking six months after I arrive but I can't help wondering if it will. If it does, what can I do.

This is all part of the rich tapestry of life.

No pictures today.... too busy to look for good ones....

Little bits and batts

After the extensive and interesting blog post of yesterday, today I have a slightly more bitty-post.

Panicked phone call

Yesterday (Monday) the men arrived to swap out the shutter on the unit. I have no idea how this has gone as of yet (as I write this) but presumably it has gone well as I haven't received any panicked phone calls.

I don't even know if I have got the keys back yet so I can gain access to the unit; the time the men arrived was well before my studio opens so a neighbour had to give them the keys. Hopefully they have been dropped off at the studio or at the very least they can be picked up from the helpful neighbour (who also provided a fork lift truck) tomorrow.

It is a couple of weeks yet til I'm back there (next weekend is part two of the plastering course....) so I have to patient before I see it. Hopefully my business partner can get round to pushing the trailer inside the unit at least so it is out of the rain and weather and secure from potential thieves.

One use for Marine Plywood

Anyway this is good as it means the next free weekend (December, I believe) I will be over there and getting more stuff done. I need to get some Marine Ply to put in the base of the trailer so there is no risk of damage should the trip be wet (and when I bring the trailer to my current house to collect the table I'm sat at now, which will be soon, it almost certainly will be raining so I need this for then). I can go to the friendly builders merchant round the corner for this and also see if he has had my heavy duty padlock delivered yet.

Another thing which occurred to me yesterday (and I have asked my very-long-suffering business partner to assist me on this) is I really should have measured at least the hole I'd made when removing the fridge. In two weeks I am taking Julian on a test trip up to the Lake District and if I have that open I will positively freeze!

COLD!

I've asked him to send me a drawing of the dimensions of the hole so I can start designing the rabbit hutch but before anything I will cut out a piece of wood to the correct size and then just whack it in the hole when I collect Julian on my mad dash to the lakes that Friday evening.

What could possibly go wrong.

I haven't heard from the Camper Van Guy about the electrics since I saw him a week ago so I may have to put a chase out on him this evening or tomorrow; I am really having to learn to be organised with this process as there is so much to think about and it would be so easy to just forget something and then screw up.

He has until the end of next week to complete all the work so having gone quiet for a week is not the greatest of things.

Rambo

Finally for now I think that Rambo is getting a new cage which will fit in the back of Thomas. It is still not clear in my head what I am going to do but mainly this is because the parents are still on holiday and I want to talk to them about their feelings. I haven't heard back from the pet transport people who were recommended so I think I will have to chase them also.

Chase chase chase......

Plastering Course Weekend One

What a weekend!

Shiny and clean

For the past two days over Saturday and Sunday I have been at the first two days of my Plastering Course. It was brilliant.

I have a LOT of pictures for this update so please excuse if they do not marry up to the text they are near (something I always try to achieve as I'm sure you have noticed) but I have took 37 pictures and my mate Alex took another 22 so believe me I have narrowed this down and deleted loads.

Pear Mill - an outstanding building

Anyway, thinking back to Saturday morning I arrived at Pear Mill really early, but with a book (well kindle) (planning you see) and sat in the truck and after a few minutes Alex walked over and we went for a walk around the outside of the amazing building.

Can you imagine having to lay all those bricks, and the effort it must have been to create this amazing space. Imagine when it was at its peak capacity and the hustle, noise and energy when it was full of people and machines.

Such a beautiful industrial building.

Me and Alex

Anyway, it was cold so it was back into Thomas, engine running and heater going until finally the doors for the course were opened and in we went..... to much abuse from the trainers because of our shiny and clean overalls.

Part of the group

There were about 15 people who arrived that morning but only 7 of us doing the Plastering course. The others were doing a Decorating Course or a Basic Home Maintenance Course. We had a brew (with more amusement when one of the students stole our instructors fresh coffee - minus one star on the board next to her name!) and then split up into groups.

The plastering area

The Plastering area was a collection of bays, half of them already plastered (from the previous mid week course, apparently) and the other half wooden shells which were our bays. First of all Len (our instructor) walked us around the completed bays to give us confidence that these people, with only three days of practice, had done them and to be honest this worked. The finish on every wall would be good enough for me.

The tools of the trade

However Saturday was not a plastering day. We were told to pick a bay and then "right, prepare your area; you need to take out all the nails". An hour or so later, and with aching arms and slightly warm, I had managed to remove almost every nail - it's true that no matter how much you search you will always miss some.

Basically at the end of a course the plasterboard is kicked through and the bays opened out again for the next course (us). They do not, however, remove the nails and this as the first task works really well to relax you into working, get your blood moving and put you in the right frame of mind to just get stuck in.

Plaster boarding

We did get time to have a brew break and then it was onwards to put new plasterboard up on the studwork. I have done this before but it does show just how quickly you forget your skills with lack of practice. It took until after lunch to plasterboard the whole area, something once I would have done in an hour, but I did get back into the swing of it over time.

Mmmm hot chocolate

One of the other students, who is actually a builder, did get the complete bay boarded by lunch and so he headed off early.

Acro Prop holding the ceiling up

I managed to finish by about 2pm and so was able to get back home in time to watch England win at Rugby - always a good thing.

Sunday started about the same, arriving slightly early and sitting with Alex in Thomas with the heater on. This time, however, we were actually going to be doing some Plastering.

My first attempt at plastering

First of all Len showed us how to do the mix. Then he went to one of the previously plastered walls and showed us some tricks. Then we were each given half a wall and told "give it a go". I will not go into all the tips that we were given (it would take too long and anyway if you want to learn, you go book on!) but suffice to say I was impressed with the way which Len showed us something, then presumed that we would be competent to give it a go.

First ever full skim

A good example of this was, after our short practice on the other people's wall, we were told "right go and mix up your own plaster and set to on that half of your own wall". I actually did the second lot but by the end of the day everyone had wielded the mixer tool, scraped around the outside with the bucket-trowel and washed out the plaster bucket once the load had been used up (OK I did that last a few times; what can I say I ended up finishing things relatively quickly and hate standing around).

One part of the day which was really awesome was 11am when, at the end of the morning coffee break, we all observed the 2 minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday. It was good that such respect is shown so willingly by a group of people from such a disparate background.

By lunch time on the Sunday I had plastered half of the big wall and learned SO MUCH. I was struggling to put enough thickness on the wall and then, during the smoothing out process my trowel angle was wrong which was scraping plaster off the wall rather than just smoothing it onto the wall.

Alex fitting his plug socket

A short lunch break (then a crowd watching Alex cut out and fit his plug the hole for which we will repair next weekend) and onto the next step; plastering the ceiling.

Mixing the plaster

I don't know why, maybe because of the practice from the morning, but I felt much more confident doing this. I still made the same mistakes of scraping too much off because of the trowel angle but my initial load was much more what I should be aiming for.

Just a little dirty....

After a short brew break we were back to our bays to do the final smooth and then cleaning and tidying to leave the unit safe and ready for any midweek courses which are booked.

And me (caught by surprise)

Our overalls were no longer clean by the stage and much amusement again when the course leaders took both our photographs as part of a "before" and "after" montage for their website.

I managed to avoid getting anything in my beard but Alex wasn't quite so lucky.

My bay at the end of the weekend

So now I am really looking forward to next week; we will finish off the plastering in the bay, learning how to join two plastered areas and then on the Sunday do a second skim, where you have to do things much quicker as the plaster goes off fast when it is being put onto other old plaster.

The instructions

I cannot wait.

With thanks to Alex for a few of these pictures :)

Architects / Change of Use... What now?

A lot of people have been asking me what I'm going to do now I have sacked Veselka; presumably, they're saying, I still need to have an architect and soon to get the progress I need so I can start off building as efficiently as possible when I arrive.

The thing is I have a number of options open to me and I am currently weighing these up and the fact of needing an architect is even under question.

1. Engage the other architect who I met when I met Veselka

If you are a regular reader of this blog, and have a good memory, you will remember that when I first met Veselka I arranged to meet another architect who was found via a contact from my friend (nepotism can get SO convoluted!). He wasn't around as much as Veselka and at the time I was pretty impressed with the answers Veselka gave compared to this guy (he's called Lubo). I had to make a decision and I went the way of Veselka.

Ahhh nepotism....

What I put now will probably lead you to ask "why exactly did you make THAT stupid decision?" but at the time I had to fall one way or the other and I made the decision I made.

Lubo is local to the region I'm buying in, though the contact with him now lives up in Sofia and isn't around as much. He used to work for the Obshtina and so said he was ideally placed to get the approvals needed. He also, however, said a few things which made me think he may not have been as straight and honest as I would like.

I have contacted Lubo and he has said he's happy to help and will hopefully be getting back to me today having spoken to the Obshtina to get full facts about what they say the next steps are.

We shall see.

2. Find a different architecture firm

Another option I am currently working through is finding another architecture firm (mainly from Sofia) who may be able to help me. I was kindly recommended a couple of firms in the comments section of an earlier blog post and have contacted them and another friend has given me a further recommendation. I sent basically the same email to each company last week (even before I had sacked Veselka) and waited.

Can it be that hard...?

Every company has now replied which is impressive compared to the communication skills I have been used to so far from Veselka, with two of them agreeing that the price and timeline I am expecting is acceptable, and the third saying that they can't do it for the price I want. This is fair enough and at least they haven't taken it on at one price, and then tried to increase the price over time.

The issue with another remote company is the distance again may become an issue.

3. Use the chief architect at the Obshtina

Now THIS is what I should have done from day one, and I'm kicking myself slightly that I didn't go with my instincts however that is just how it goes.

hmmm.... good idea!

The people who sold me the school have been helpful in the extreme and have spoken to the chief architect at the Obshtina and she has offered to start the process for change of use free of charge just to help out. I was not even aware that this lady was available commercially and thought she was only the contact inside the council that I would need to speak to while I was asking for the change of use.

The issue I have at the moment is I need the original Skitza and this has been requested by Veselka so I'm waiting for this to be forwarded to me before I can do anything. If I can get everything done by the department in the Obshtina who, ultimately, approve the process then that can only be a good idea.

4. Do what we can without Change of Use and wait for March

The final option (and this could combine well with the previous one) is for me to do what I can now (my friend can get the electrical survey done which is apparently all that EVN are waiting for before giving me my temporary electrical connection). If what I have been advised is correct and the Permission to Build may NOT be held up behind the PUP then I would be able to arrive in March and immediately start the process with the aim of having Permission to Build within a month or six weeks.

Oh yeah...

Whatever I do I will not be expecting to really start work immediately I arrive; first of all my parents are going to be there for the first week or so and I will want to spend some time showing them around etc and even when I do set my mind to it I will need to ensure my build team is ready and order materials for delivery and all that takes some time.

I could, therefore, on the first day I arrive kick the process off and then just be available to go into the Obshtina any day, while also giving the time to my parents that I want.

---------------------------

So, there are a few options open. I am waiting for contact from Lubo before making my final decision however the problem with the first two options is I gave Veselka my Power of Attorney but no one else and I would need to get that Power of Attorney to whoever is going to do the work. I could go the same route as I did when I bought the school and have the contract sent here, signed and stamped and couriered back so I don't have to get over to do this however that is more cost and more hassle.

The good thing about all this is that I have options and they all have their good points.

Onwards :)