The start of the week started with snow and ended in sunshine! The first three days of this week were spent working at a higher elevation to the East of Elhovo for Mr T and the last two days to the North West for Mr Phil Rose. Quite a contrast but it was nice not to have to work in the cold all week.
The first three days were once again trying to put right Mr T's build. Things are gainig momentum as problems are solved and the real work can get underway. One of these problems was the plastering.
Prior to my arrival, approximately one month before, all the downstairs walls had been replastered. It is almost like the plaster knew what he was doinf this time but once again made some very serious school poor errors. The error this time was with preparing the old walls. The traditional Bulgarian way to render a wall is to put plastic mesh on the walls and then plaster over the top of it. However, most old Bulgarian walls have been painted with lime wash ('Var'). This coating is very powdery and nothing can stick to it. It is easy to tell lime wash. if you run your finger over it, it comes away with white paint on it. This means unless the wall is prepared properly anything that is applied to it will fall off. Have a look at this for what i mean:
The only thing the plasterer had to do was......score a criss cross pattern of grooves all over the wall. This cuts through the lime wash and provides a strong key for the new plaster.
On another note, the plastering was done at ground floor level and is bound to get damp along the bottom. The only way to easily stop this is to dry line the walls with plasterboard, like i have done in the picture below:
Anyhow, the client decided that it was too late in the project to redo EVERYTHING so would risk problems in future.
Another fun thing we had to do was replace the stop tap for the main water supply and we couldn't turn the water off to the street. In the trade it is called 'live' work and is usally done at the start of the build, when you done mind if things get wet and not at the end when you do mind. Just another different mentality i suppose. So, we changed it live and didn't get anything wet! I believe that is my new record! With this done we can now sort out all the problems in the bathroom....
Late on Wednesday afternoon i got an anxious call from an exclient. I had installed a pool, redone his roof and landscaped his garden before. The problem was that the excavated earth, which was banked up for further landscaping inthe future, was allowing his gods (six!) to escape. This is not normally a problem but he has two manic young pups and they got out and killed a chicken. For those of you who have not heard of this before, its a really quick way of having a dead dog and no friends in your village.
So, we moved about 14 tonnes of earth in two days. the weather was fine and all of us took off layer after layer of clothing while toiling in the sunshine. I slept the good sleep of physical exhaustion after the first night. i was really really tired. So tired in fact that i almost fell asleep at the table that evening. Did i mention that it was Valentines on Thursday? Thanks Phil
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