Home Improvements: Plastered

Home Improvements: Plastered

A freak snow storm slows down work

The boiler is running perfectly, and it’s as quiet as a mouse compared to our previous 20-year-old monster. We’re told that it’s also more energy-efficient, and that our gas bill should reflect that. Well, perhaps it would if the weather was spring-like, but we’ve been plunged back into winter. It started snowing on Monday, and everyone thought “Oh it will stop soon; it’s spring; it’s mid-March; it’s just a hiccup.” It snowed all day and all night. The temperature dropped to -4C, icicles formed from the house gutters, the bricks and lumber on the patio disappeared under a thick 10cm blanket of snow. Now this sort of weather pattern isn’t unusual – it’s often snows in March here in mid-Sussex, but this amount is quite unusual. So that’s the English weather done – let’s move on.

Paul-the-Plasterer and his helper started on Monday morning with the living room ceiling and the boarded up hole where the old door was located. They skimmed on smooth as glass plaster in a rich warm terracotta colour. Gorgeous colour, but I was a bit anxious about it until Mr Misky explained that the colour would turn creamy as it dried. And with those words, the house turned progressively damper and damper and more damp until water ran in steady trickles from the windows, the duvets turned damp, the pillows were damp, and I decided that I was nearly at my threshold of stiff-upper-lip. And lack of sleep last night didn’t help my mood this morning. I’m not good at sleeping on a wet sponge.

However … this morning, the sun was shining, the lawn was thick with snow, the ceiling and walls were drying to a creamy colour, and all was going right with the world. You were expecting a “but” or “except” to come next, right? Well, no such thing from my lips. All is quite right with the world today, and Paul-the-Plasterer and his helper are making rapid progress.

Andy-the-Builder stayed home, not wishing to risk driving on the motorway in the snow where people were still stranded from the night before. The highways department is apt for a slapping in the news tonight because hundreds of drivers were stuck overnight on the motorway between Gatwick and Brighton without any means of keeping warm.

I shall, therefore, not complain (too much) about sleeping on wet beds and drying off with damp towels. The world has treated me well today.

Shopping List: Buy more semi-skimmed milk for workmen’s tea and coffee, caster sugar, salt for the dishwasher, treats for Molly, more fruit for me.