Saturday, 15 November

We met Dave, the window fitter, at the house, and he replaced the broken double-glazing unit that we'd forgotten to mention when we saw him on his first (measuring-up) visit [we'd remembered the two windows that needed replacing, and the broken hinges on three windows, the front door lock mechanism not working, the second French window with the key broken in the lock, and the missing letterbox cover (we want to keep draughts to a minimum)].

We'd got quite used to the boarded-up window, so it was quite odd having a view again.

We cleaned the frame and casement whilst Dave was doing something or other, and the uPVC came up really well - I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can get the other windows as shiny.  Cleaning them has been very low down on our list of priorities, apart from the wooden bedroom one (and I only cleaned that to kill the black mould).  Knowing that we will have more workmen creating more mess, it seems sensible to just carry on ignoring the windows until we are relatively dust-free.

I loaned out my lovely assistant!  ;-)

After he'd gone, we carried on wallpaper stripping, and I finished the walls in the study, but was struggling with the paper in the dining room, so I left David to continue with the steamer and attachment in there, and diverted to sugar-soaping down the walls in the lounge...

Admiring the light play on the newly-stripped wall

David finished his room, but I'd cleared about a 4' by 18" strip.  It felt impossible, and has caused my shoulder pain to flare up again, so we are going to have to have a re-think.

Disappointing progress

We will try buying a sander, and see if that helps, and we have the floor-cleaning attachment for the steam-cleaner, so that might be an idea?  The paste is so sticky, that I worry we will clog up both very quickly, but we will experiment and hopefully find a better method (than endless scrubbing).

I forgot to say that we'd called at the "hidden" decorator's merchant [the lady there said the most customers she can remember on a Saturday was about eight; so it sounds like a well-kept secret on weekends] to buy the sugar soap (and a whole bunch more stuff; as you do), and were discussing the upstairs wallpaper.  It is directly applied to bare plasterboard, and she confirmed what I'd thought: if we try to strip if off, we will end up blowing the plasterboard, so that is a big "no".

In one way it's good news - less wallpaper stripping - but in another it raises another problem.  I think I'm going to try washing down the walls with a very wrung-out cloth/sponge [I want to remove the grime, smell of damp, and nicotine to make the place smell better and the paint adhere better] - and will probably start behind where the radiators will go [in case I get it badly wrong, my mistakes will be hidden].  Assuming that works out OK, we then have a potential issue of the pattern showing through.  Particularly where Steve's work has removed bits of paper - we will try to make-good with some lining paper, but I think it will be very visible.

I'm hoping (fervently) that we don't have to go down the route of having to have the walls lined...