Eleven buckets of course mud Sunday, 15-Jan-23 20:20:07 CET

Eight buckets of TopFinish in the hall Sunday, 29-Jan-23 21:28:30 CET

Sunday, 22-Jan-23 20:40:23 CET

Finished the MP75 layer in the hall on the ground

This week I plastered five buckets of the MP75, finishing the course mud phase. Then I started on the TopFinish layer and plastered three buckets with that.

Monday 16 January

It is already Monday. I feel I perhaps worked a little too hard on plastering yesterday. There is just so much your body can handle. Oh well, I have a day's rest this Monday, working from the office.

Today we had a passenger on the way to the office. It was feeling great to share the commute with someone else. Perhaps it will be a Monday thing to bring a passenger. On other days of the week, we are not that punctual, and it is less convenient to share the journey.

It was raining a lot today. It has been a really wet month.

In the evening, I did not do DIY; I had to rest.

Tuesday 17 January

It was such lovely weather today. The sun was shining, and we collected 18 kWh. The peak was at 4400 watts. We worked from home today, and although I did not go outside, I was happy it was not raining.

Today arrived a package with the missing parts of the dishwasher. It took four months to get them here.

After work, I mixed one bucket of course mud and plastered the last parts of the north wall around the door. Then I finished the west wall of the north hall and got around the corner to the north wall of the south hall. Next time I will look at different surfaces of how well they are done and improve where necessary, and then it is time to start plastering the ceiling with coarse mud.

Wednesday 18 January 2023

Today was another sunny day, lovely. I worked from home for the first half of the day, and after lunch, we first went to a second-hand shop. I was curious to find a winter jacket, but there was only one jacket I liked, but it was XXL, and that was too big for me. DW found a drinking glass out of our current collection and two porcelain bowls.

When we came home, I mixed a bucket of course mud and finished where I was yesterday, around the corner between the south and north hall. I also remade a bit of the south wall, but I regretted that later when I started on a second bucket. Precisely with the second bucket, I had decided to plaster the ceiling along the edge, starting from the south wall. That did not go well where I had been working on the wall. I stood there trying to repair the damage to the ceiling, ruining the wall and vice versa. I did this a couple of times before abandoning that section. I will have to come back to that section and do only the ceiling or wall and, later, when cured, the other part.

After this mishap, I decided to continue with the ceiling along the edge from where it was possible, which went much better. I finished the edge line along the entire north hall.

So two buckets today, making it three this week so far.

Thursday 19 January

This was a work-from-office day. I deliberately did no DIY today because I need to be easy on the body between the DIY passes. Climbing up and down a ladder takes its toll. Luckily I have desk-bound office work, so I have plenty of moments to sit down.

Friday 20 January

It was snowing today. Here is a movie I took from the office. The flakes are filmed with the slow-motion function of the camera. It looks so lovely with the flakes falling down. We still got the summer tires on the car, and I think we will keep it like that for another couple of weeks. We both went to our offices today. I still got sick colleagues, but most of the sicknesses are slowly over.

We lit a fire in the wood stove in the evening and ate pizza. I worked on my music project.

Saturday 21 January 2023

Today I plastered the final bucket course mud. Mainly the seams in the ceiling got filled. I filled all the screw heads in the ceiling, so I am more or less done with the MP75 stuff. The next phase will be to mix TopFinish and plaster only with that. I must say that my new measurement stick has worked really well. I talked about it last week. TopFinish is much easier to mix; you pour it gently into the water, and when the mud level is just above the water level, you have enough powder. Then the mix needs to rest for a while, they call it "drink" in the Netherlands, and then it can be mixed.

Well, this is all for tomorrow.

After plastering, I started baking cinnamon rolls again because we were getting visitors. Yeah, that is correct; we have visitors again. It is a couple with a young daughter this time as well. The difference this time was that I was not going to make any of the mistakes I made last time when making the cinnamon rolls. The oven would reach the correct temperature, and all ingredients would be mixed properly.

I did it, and it became perfect cinnamon rolls! I was a little late but so were the visitors. So where were they? After a while, one of them came. He explained that the daughter had just fallen asleep, and the visit had to be canceled. We offered tea and cinnamon rolls, and he liked that as well. It had been jollier also with the daughter and wife, but we will do that another time. When he went home, he brought a bag of cinnamon rolls, which was nice.

This evening I worked on the music again. I am mastering the song right now. It is not that easy, but I am doing what I can.

Sunday 22 January

This morning it was just below freezing with small rests of snow, and it was misty. It was not that much wind.

I wanted to start on the much-appreciated next phase of the plastering project, TopFinish, but after careful inspection, I decided to do a final bucket of the course mud. Especially around the windows, the previous layer had shrunk too much, so I had to fill out cavities another round. I mixed the fifth bucket of the course mud this week. This time I perfectioned the surfaces meticulously.

When done with the course mud, I did three TopFinish buckets. I mix TopFinish with experience, with no measurements with weighing the water and the powder. I pour water into the bucket so much I think I can handle it and slowly pour the powder into the water. When the powder reaches the surface of the water, there is enough powder. Then the mix has to wait a while, and then I mix with the mixing rod, and I am good to go.

I finished the first layer of TopFinish on the south wall of the south hall, minus the windows. I also finished the east wall of the north hall. I skipped the north wall and continued with the west wall of the north hall, and there I stopped halfway. The reason for skipping the wall is that the corner has to cure on one side before I can do the other side.

We borrowed a scaffold from a friend, and he texted me that he would need it the following week. I considered changing my plan and doing the ceiling for a moment, but I did not do that. I continued following my original plan. When I do the ceiling without the scaffold, I will use our ladder that can be folded into a bench.

Later in the evening, he came, loaded the scaffold in his car, and that was it. In about a week we can borrow it again.

Here ends this week's blog. Every time I see the hall's progress, it makes me happy. It means we are getting closer to the moment I can start the workshop and other exciting things. I did five buckets of course mud and three buckets of TopFinish. This week I made perfect cinnamon rolls!