I may have been procrastinating ...

It has been a quiet couple of days here at The Pile and there is little to report on the work front.

At home I had taken to repeated sweeping and  tidying of tools in the Hall rather than actually doing anything and this evening I finally decided to break out of that unproductive loop by fitting the final length of skirting. It was a pig of a job that involved careful chiselling of the slate flags to remove the worst protuberances. I then needed to scribe the bottom edge of the board and trim to match the uneven profile of the floor. The final task was to plane a chamfer on the last few inches of the board so that the Dining Room door would still open in to the Hall…

… Did I just say "final"? What I meant was that I could then offer a silent prayer to the Gods that my drill holes would all terminate in masonry or brick rather than mortar, use far more Gripfill* than is actually necessary on the reverse of the board, offer another silent prayer or two and then start to screw the damned thing in place using a temporary wedge in an attempt to curve the board to the shape of the uneven wall.

I did say it was a pig of a job.

All I can do now is wait a few days for the adhesive to fully cure before I remove the wedge and pray once more that the board will accept the flex rather than revert to normal and pull the 3" screws from the wall.

Having done this I could then revert to sweeping and tidying again so that I will be able to get in to the Inglenook and grout the replacement flag and a complete a couple of other minor jobs.

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* Other Building adhesives are available but use the water based ones at your peril … they are bloody useless.