Plastering Aunty Nellie's Room

Greg has been working in Aberdeen most recently but returned to the castle over the last few days to plaster Aunt Nellie's bedroom. Glen and Gregor had previously lined and plaster-boarded sections of wall and ceiling that had been destroyed by dry rot as described in my previous blog entry here.

You can see that large areas of new plastering have been required, particularly along the east wall where nothing survived due to decades of water ingress from a blocked box gutter. Overall, it is now probably 50/50 in terms of new and old fabric. Professional developers would have ripped everything off and started from scratch. However, for better or worse, we have been studiously conservative of original fabric.

You can see we still have window linings to recreate, and the order for the appropriate mouldings is in with a local carpentry workshop. Greg likes to give new plasterwork a coat of white paint as soon as it's humanly possible. Not only does this seal the plaster, but it also is the best indication of whether any additional filling is required. I am looking forward to that paint job: there's a certain stage when there is a transition from a "space in a derelict building" to a "almost creditably habitable room", which is very rewarding.

Anyhow, this blog entry makes it 52 for this year which is the highest ever and though the achievement is definitely covid related, I am still proud of doing a blog entry (on average) once a week.

Thanks to Greg for the photos.

Aunt Nellie's bedroom - looking south-west

Aunt Nellie's bedroom - looking north-west - towards the Great Hall

Aunt Nellie's bedroom - looking north - east wall on the right