Mist coat

Day 1 of a weekend of mist-coat painting, now that some of the plaster is dry enough, helped today by two members of my family and my next door neighbour who is building with the same builders at the same time as me. She worked as  painter and decorator for five years so knows what she is doing and I was very touched that she was prepared to give up her afternoon to help me.

Until two weeks ago I didn't know what a mist coat was - a thin coat of emulsion mixed with water to seal the new plaster. I also thought you had to leave plaster to dry for six weeks, but that's when plasterboard has solid render behind it to stick it to the bricks. The way it's usually done now is using 'dabs and dots' of render to act as glue. The plaster dries out faster and it's cheaper but in not-so-well-insulated houses this method can lead to draughts and cold patches. I hope mine is well enough insulated.

We split the areas to paint according to our heights and flexibility which meant that I got everything in the middle.

Once we'd finished it was clear where the dabs and dots were - it took longer for the paint to dry there.

This is the front bed room with the window boarded up.