Early April Update

We have had a busy weekend at Albert House, Dael and Liam got stuck in and have made very good progress in finishing plaster boarding the top floor rooms, another session at this this week and I would say we are ready for the plasterer to do his magic the coming weekend. Every time I go up to the top floor I am amazed at how much natural light we have created by installing Velux windows, you really have to take a step back and look at the old photographs to see the transformation, imagination is one thing but the reality is even better.
Once we get the rooms plastered we can complete the finishing, by this I mean new grey electrical sockets which will be the metal " industrial type" with cable run in black metal conduit to give the rooms/ offices the masculine look I think a modern office space should be. We also have to sand down the exposed beams to give the rooms character and beauty which will complement the new work fantastically well. We will then be in a position to apply a base paint and then decide the final colour scheme and room layout, I think in the next month we should be complete and ready for furniture selection, along with goodness knows what IT equipment to support the Business needs of a modern world.

Work has also continued a the first floor with her Ladyship grasping the nettle and getting stuck into sanding down the remaining door frames ready for painting, I have to say her enthusiasm cannot be overstated, this is not light easy work, anyone who is willing to learn how to use ferocious power tools such as angle grinders and power drills with grinding attachments has to be admired, she loves it! not only that, she is very competent with these potentially dangerous, heavy and noisy pieces of equipment!

We have also made good progress this weekend in finishing three bedroom doors ready to be re-fitted, you may recall that sometime ago we removed the doors and had them chemically stripped, well, that is only the start. We set up one room for the preparation and sanding operations, and another room to complete the finishing process, this meant keeping as much wood dust in one room and another dust free room for cleaning and staining the doors.
Initially in room 1, we have to fill in any holes or imperfections with wood filler, then sand all the surfaces with 80 grit paper followed by 180 grit and then finish with 240 grit (the smoothest), I think I managed to use just about every tool I have available for this task, belt sander, orbital sander, various detail sanders and a Dremmel to get into the corners, so you can imagine the time and care this needs.(the orbital sander is my personal favourite).
  Then into room 2, before staining we have to have a dust free surface, we did this firstly by soft brushing any loose dust off the surface and then a cleaning with white spirit soaked in a rag, I have also read that you can wipe the surface with a "tacking cloth" to remove the last fine dust particles but I am not familiar with this technique and we do not have any!! when I next visit the DIY shop I will look out for this and give it a go, we have plenty of doors to go at!
At the end of this fine weekend we have managed to prepare the 3 doors and apply two coats of dark walnut stain to one of them and I have to say so far, it is looking good.
        



FIRST COAT