It looks pretty cool I think, it makes me happy as no more roof work as now I can turn my attention to the second floor walls. Those are holes for the skylights you can see if you were wondering.

Im not sure if I mentioned in my last post but I have been installing all the electrical wiring which is probably my least favorite job and I have the cuts on my hands to prove it.

Upstairs is all wired and I have also installed the sub panel so all that is needed is to connect up all the wires to the breakers and install all the outlets – but this can be done when the walls are complete.

Talking of the walls I had the guys make a start upstairs. I decided to start the second floor first even though I want to move in as soon as I can – it would have made sense to start on our living area first as we will be living downstairs but I have so many deliveries of materials that come through the main doors I decided to finish upstairs first.

One of my tasks that I set myself last week was to clean up the place – it started to get to the point where I was having to climb over stuff just to get in to rooms. Enough was enough! About three van loads of trash later the place was clean and organized.

So back to the walls… I had the guys start on the front room first which had the worst condition walls of the whole house and was also the biggest room. I figured it would all be downhill from there.

The plastering should be done with a cement and fine sand mix with lime – the old colonial walls need to be able to breath hence why you see a lot of cracks and plaster falling off the houses here.

Now it takes a long time to make the lime mix plaster as it is recommended that you get it made up to 6 months before you need it as it needs to sit – I m not sure why but thats the way it is.

Even though I have just said all that I chose not to use the lime mix. I had a few reasons … the main being that about 20 years ago someone had started to renovate the house (and never finished) and reinforced all the walls with about half a foot of concrete and steel bar inside. So it would have been pointless.

For it to be worthwhile using the plaster with lime would mean having to take all that metal bar and concrete off the walls. That would have been a huge job taking a lot of time and money – also there was a chance to damaging the original colonial walls as pulling off all the concrete and bar would be a difficult job. It may not have looked neat but the concrete they put on the walls was solid so it didn’t make sense taking it off hence the decision to use normal plaster or panete as they call it here.

It has taken over a week to finish the big room but they did it – it still needs tidying up but  now all that is left in that room is to put on all the outlets/lights and to add the doors and the room will be ready for decorating.

I have decided to plaster all the rooms apart from the bathrooms as I still haven’t started the plumbing yet but that will be started as soon as I finish the downstairs electrics.

The job I have started to think about was the doors… now this has the potential to be a massive cost. I have worked out I need about 40 doors and 20 windows – yikes. So I am  trying to find out the best way to do this (and a cheap way).

I bought a couple of budget doors just to test out the quality to put on the pool house. They are pine and need finishing but I have almost hung one – I am am undecided. I suppose I will make a decision when its varnished. This is the cheapest way to go but I might go for the wood look aluminum doors as they are less maintenance and stronger – not very colonial I know but they actually look pretty good – although the cost is prohibitive.

I will custom make the front doors for the house I want these to be good quality, heavy doors to match in with the colonial zone. Busy times ahead!