MORE COVING

Please sir, can I have some more coving?  This time it’s the turn of daughter’s bedroom and the upstairs bathroom to be given the royal coving treatment as these rooms are next on the world’s greatest DIY list.  

It's not a cave, it's the daughter's bedroom

Upstairs bathroom - it's gotta go

I’ve picked a plasterer out of our local newspaper, the Bournemouth Echo, to do the honours as I haven’t the time to post a job on MyBuilder.com and I didn’t really like the visible joins left on the hallway coving by the last guy. 

Same principles apply though, always check the credentials (Checkatrade) of your chosen tradesperson and any reviews posted online about their workmanship as it’s hard to say ‘no’ once they’ve turned up to give you a quote.  Expect to pay something in the region of about £200 for a day’s coving work including materials. 

And now a word about wallpaper in respect of the above – remember to ask your tradesperson what experience they have had in hanging the type of wallpaper you have. 

Now the reason I say this has become more apparent since I started painting our wallpaper and noticed little things such as overlapping or open joins, ragged edges that didn’t look cut with scissors, unmatched patterns and strange ‘patching’ applied in places.  By patching I mean that a ‘patch’ of paper has been cut out and stuck in position at the end of a strip for no reason other than the person probably couldn’t be bothered to measure out a new length of paper.  Considering we had 9 rolls left over due to my over-estimating of quantities required, there really were no excuses for not using a fresh length of paper each time.  Needless to say, that company won’t be getting any further calls from me for wallpapering.  I won’t name and shame them here, but if you really want to know who they are then email me privately.

Now you see it, now you don't

Nutmeg white - first coat upstairs

It's a long hard slog painting patterned wallpaper

All in all, it’s a case of keep calm and carry on painting.  The paper’s up and there’s nothing I can do about it now is there?

Jasmine White - first coat on staircase spindles

Shelby is most bemused at having been woken from her wintry beauty sleep to be moved into my son’s old bedroom whilst we clear out the dusty boxes of hoarded clutter so that the plasterer can access the ceiling. 

Tortoise Travelodge

I need my beauty sleep