Decided against the "bare brick" look - partly for Clive's reason - the whole scuffed saddle/bar tape scenario doesn't sit well with my Bike-OCD, but also partly because the room is very small, and felt rather dark and oppressive as soon as it wasn't in full sunlight... I really noticed it yesterday afternoon as the dark clouds and rain came in.

So, realising that I'm going to need to get my plastering kit back out, I spent this morning giving the brickwork a couple of coats of PVA sealant, and now it's time to start thinking about sorting the electricals. No photo's because - well - it looks the same, only with a coat of transparent gloop painted on the walls.

Time to leave it to dry before the third coat of less-dilute PVA, then maybe we can get the first gauge of plaster running tomorrow

final PVA applied and the metal edging strips for the external corners near to the door/window frame now screwed into the brickwork. I'm currently having a few issues finding appropriate cabinetry for in there - until I decide on the cabinet arrangements, I don't want to actually arrange the electrical services on that wall - so tomorrow's likely to be more research than action I'm afraid. Really, REALLY want to try and go with stock cabinets and doors - don't want the hassle of having to try and fabricate stuff if I can get away with it. Difficult bit is I've got a definite "look" in my minds eye, but achieving that with stock cabinets isn't working too well so far.

first layer of "undercoat plaster" around the door/window surrounds is now on and gently curing. Not knocking myself about today, just a bit of gentle stuff here and there, as frankly, I'm feeling rough with a bit of a cold... May do first fix on some of the electricals later...

You should see some of the plastering in my house (new build - 2001), it looks like Stevie Wonder & Ray Charles did it! :huh:

Anyway - looking forward to seeing it progress

That's funny. :laugh:

Seen more than my fair share of plasterwork like that... and done one or two examples of it too... I'm okay - certainly not professional quality, and far slower than a proper guy - but after lots of attempts, I've got to the point where I can make it stick to the wall, stay there for a good long time (I know to 15 years on one example without any cracking...) but with the state of the actual brickwork on that room, I'm not promising that the eventual room is going to be square and straight - smooth, probably, but the other two... unlikely.

Well - yesterday evening, my tame sparky came around, checked everything, pronounced it all "to code, safe and well installed" then connected the whole shebang, fitted the sockets, re-tested, and left me with installation document pronouncing everything to be kosher. Today I've removed the door between the kitchen and bike-cave, given everything a thorough clean-down again, and a final coat of PVA incuding over the galvanised cable ducting... I'm now at the bit i've been dreading starting - actually starting the plastering job. I'm still feeling a bit rough with this cold, tbh, and every time I bend over my nose starts running, so I'm going to put the plastering on hold I think, for a couple of days... and hopefully get someone to give me a hand with the mixing, so I can just keep going with the plastering... it's not a big job, but its certainly going to take more than a single mix to cover the three walls - plus it's going to have to be a 2-3 coat process... 1 coat of bonding plaster to cover all the trunking and wavy brickwork, then a coat or two of finishing plaster, just to get a decent finish on there.

Well - first gauge of plaster is now on the 2 "wired walls" - i.e. the two walls with electrical sockets, plus the window/door wall is ready for its skim also. Still not 100% decided as to if I actually plaster the "bike hanging wall" or if I just seal the brickwork and make a feature of it...

I'll try and decide (and maybe take a second opinion from a friend with better taste than I have...) before getting around to adding a skim coat of finishing plaster...



I do rather like the look of these "bike holder" things...

That's actually the Idea, yeah

http://www.outlineworksltd.com/Products/trophy-bull-soft-touch-plastic-finish/

it's either that or the Stag's Head one...

http://www.outlineworksltd.com/Products/trophy-deer-soft-touch-plastic-finish/

You need them in flashing neon !!

I was thinking the furry purple one...

(not really - my bike's never clean enough for the fur finishes)

I like it, but £79.20?....that brings out the Yorkshire in me.

yeah, me too a little - but considering how much I've saved doing the wiring, plastering and laying the flooring myself, not to mention building the cabinetry that's going in there, I can at least splurge a little on something important - like the thing that's holding £3.5k of bike off the ground... :laugh:

three walls now with the first skim of finishing plaster on there... finally getting the hang of plastering again, though I'm still not 100% convinced I can do a good enough job on the "main wall". Pretty much paralysed by indicision at the moment - which is NOT GOOD as the entire contents of that very loaded little room are currently distributed all over the rest of the house and it's driving me NUTS!

Currently waiting on the final gauge of finishing plaster to completely and uniformly "cure" so I can get a mist-coat of finish on there... We're down to a 1 square metre patch next to the back door, which I guess is drying slowly because it's colder than the rest of the room by dint of the lower thermal insulation of the door than a 2 skin cavity brick wall...

Todays update... "Skirting Board" (actually a moulded concrete base slab) is now painted - sanded, primed, and topcoated. First coat of finish emulsion applied to all 4 walls, and ceiling, then took a couple of hours out to try and find matching laminate flooring to continue the "faux granite tile" look through from the kitchen. 4 of the main "diy sheds" nothing matching, a couple lose but not quite, one colour matched but the tiles were a different shape. Was getting to the point of deciding to go for something contrasting instead, when I tried a place that sell off old "remaindered stock" - wandered in, and at the back there were 3 boxes of the exact matching stuff... boxes tatty but reasonably intact - one had an obvious scratch in the top "plank" others okay. Well - I needed 2 packs but had a quick chat with the manager and as they were all a bit scruffy, and potentially had some damage, got 3 packs for the price of two (and they were already substantially marked down from the normal new prices...)

Got home and looked - in total there are 3 planks out of 18 that are slightly marked. With the leftovers I already had, I reckon I needed maybe 10-11, so I've got a little scope for getting things right second time if need be... And, it's always handy to have a couple of spare sections - especially in a kitchen with lots of water potentially around...

Early Doors tomorrow, get another coat on the walls, out for a couple of hours for a ride hopefully, then back and get started on laying the flooring I reckon.

No photo's as basically it looks the same as yesterday, only a LOT whiter and less streaky everywhere.