new ceilings with no mess gov........

its now been four weeks since we started the roof project but like all building projects nothing goes to plan. the builders (rich and jamie) started enthusiastically by removing the front roof in a matter of hours. i'm sure they gained a sadistic pleasure by ripping off someone elses roof. i hoped at that point they were going to turn out to be reliable and not suddenly disappear onto another job. glad to say they are reliable and very good at their job. however minor problem number one soon became apparent. the plans we had drawn up we not measured correctly and rich and his structural engineer friend would need to rehash the design considerably. after a few hasty evening together they had a workable plan and then came the second minor problem. because of the inaccuracy of the original plans the ceiling height upstairs was too low and the only way around it was to lower all the downstairs ceilings to give more room upstairs. fortunately we had very high downstairs ceilings which could lose six inches but the idea of removing lathe and plaster ceiling thoughout the house including a lovely plaster cornice in the lounge did not fill me with a great deal of enthusiasm. they did however construct a cunning plan. we will replace the downstairs ceilings first with new ones and then remove the old ones from above tho avoid all the mess. great idea new ceilings with no mess. if you have ever had a ceiling replaced then you will know that with the best will in the world you can't put up a new one without any mess. to be fair rich and jamie have done their level best to keep the mess to a minimum but we have just finished two weeks of a nomadic existance migrating from room to room with all our furniture and belongings to free up each room in turn. i have had two weeks off work following rich and jamie around and painting each and every ceiling as it dried out. the end result is actually very good and we even managed to replace the plaster cornice in the lounge with an even better one. it has been an interesting couple of weeks but if the end result of the roof conversion turns out as well as the ceilings downstairs then we will be very well pleased i think. currently we have blue roofing felt stuff over most of the roof and black plastic over the back section so we are hoping for some good weather for the next few weeks. this week looks like fun as we have to discuss with the original designer why his plans were so far out, watch this space to see how that progresses. apparently this week also will see steel structures going into place and then the proper rebuilding can begin.......