Weekly challenges, rewards and nice surprises

I like this idea of setting myself a weekly challenge. A couple of weeks ago it was to get all the ceiling beams on the first floor cleaned and ready for oiling, and I almost did it. This past week, I set myself the challenge to get the outer walls of the bedroom and "side room" (not sure if it will be my office, a walk-in wardrobe, or whatever) fully plastered and ready to receive the wall heating panels. My reward would be one of the special beers sitting in the cellar, so it was all to play for!

Monday evening, I started in the bedroom. Back in June, it looked like this:

The bedroom , back in June 2012

In fact, I only had one wall to plaster, having done the southern wall (the one with all the windows) a few months ago. I decided to just go at it, and got the wall done in a few hours, and pretty straight too!

Monday evening, after work.

Monday night, about 10:30pm.

The finished product.

The back room took a little longer, as loose plaster needed to be chipped off, paint scraped off the plaster that was still sound, expanded metal sheets put up where wood was exposed and then I decided to use a plastering rail system (you know, I don't know what this is properly called in English, but it's Putzschienen in German) in order to be sure the plaster would be perfectly even, given that the underlying walls were a bit of a patchwork.

The "back room" in January 2011, with connection to Kitchen

Last Tuesday evening, taken from the other corner ;)

I used these rails in the living room, and was pleased with the results, although this time I had a mishap, pulling one off the wall, so losing some time.

Rails and expanded metal sheets in place.

So, my challenge was finally completed early this evening, helped by the fact that I too Friday off work.

Now.

In between all this, I did some other stuff. There was some wood paneling between the two room that I too out, as well as the old door frame. Taking the paneling off revealed a post holding up the end of the beam that goes into the gable wall. I already found that the end of the beam had rotted, but the architect said it was OK, as it was supported by a post as well. However, once the paneling was removed, it was clear the post has also partially rotted. I've cut a new post that I can sister to the existing post, thereby maing sure that it won's slip off in the future.

Bugger!

 To counter that, something that really made me smile. When we first bought the place, amongst all the stuff still in the barn was what looked like a door, with two odd bolts, that I thought might have come from a feeding hatch, or something in the barn or stalls. But yesterday, while looking at the original of the old photo below, it suddenly dawned on me that the two bolts looked very like the ones on the door to the cow stall on the far right of the house. See? On the left side of the open, outer door.

Today, I took the door out to hang it on the old hinges, and what do you know, it's a perfect fit. Exactly the same door as in the old photo. The two bolts fit into notches in the sandstone frame, the latch on the outside fits snugly against a wire on the outside of the door, even the hook, just about visible dangling on the upper left of the door in the old photo is still there. It's a but worn and dusty, but I'm tempted to freshen it up and leave it there. I'd love to know how old that damn photo is.

So, a good week, with my challenge, and a little more, achieved. On to my just reward, which I'm enjoying as I type. Prost!

Bloody delicious!