Monday, September 2, 2013

What we did on our summer vacation


With the stone cleaned and exterior pointed it was time to work on the interior.  With the invaluable help of V´s family, we managed about 80 meters in 12 days, and we´re knackered.



Of course it wasn´t all work.  V´s brother cooked churrasco, with predictable results.



We´re particularly pleased with the windows.





Had two weeks of absolutely lovely weather, sunny and dry and cool nights perfect for sleeping.  Discovered a new place for a 9€ menu of traditional, filling, Galician grub.

And the outside of the house looks good too, except for the weeds.




We also finally  met and exchanged phone numbers with the neighbor, whose 78 year old father was up on a ladder doing roof work.  Good to have someone in the area keep an eye on the place.

Unfortunately, the builder is booked solid until October, so finishing the repointing and interior plaster work will have to wait.  We´re now looking for interior doors online to be able to finish the door openings in time for plaster.

Any one have thoughts on cement v.s. gypsum plaster?

5 comments:

  1. It's looking wonderful, you must be so pleased. Any chance that you will be able to live there full time? You would normally render first and then plaster, but if you have a good person doing it you can get a good finish with render but it would not be as smooth as plaster.

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  2. I´m champing at the bit to live there. I´ve offered to camp, if I have to.:)

    Apparently they use a machine to blast the plaster on the walls, then smooth. I´d prefer a lime plaster, but that would take months.

    I wonder if you can plaster over cement/gypsum. I love that irregular surface in cottages.

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  3. Plaster is gypsum, I'm not sure how well lime plaster would work on bloc/ brick walls, it would normally be applied to stone walls that breaths which is why it appears irregular. If the walls were just cemented you would have a slightly raised finish which you can then paint, the raised effect comes from the sand used in the mix of cementing.

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  4. Oh wow, you guys made a lot of progress! You deserved that cookout! And did I read that right? Your neighbor's 78-year old father was up on the roof? I don't have the guts to go up mine. I'll leave that work to the pros. -Kemberly @ Patriot Roofing

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  5. That looks brilliant - I love the windows and now looking around our place to see where we could install one.

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