Lath - but no Plaster

The title refers to the fact that today I completed the removal of the plaster (earth, actually) in the lath and plaster wall.  Half of it had already fallen out over the years, helped by me removing the layer of pink plaster that had hidden it all.  When I started this morning, the wall looked like this...



...and when I finished it looked like this...



It was dusty work and my hair was like straw at the end of it! (Should have worn the hat!)  Now I have to mix up some lime mortar (which I've never used before) and replace the earth between the laths with it.  As you can see, there are stones filling the gaps between the wood uprights and behind the laths and I guess they would have filled in with these from the bottom up, as they nailed in the laths. Since I found no earth between the stones, but only on the exterior face of the wall, I'm just going to leave these as they are and plaster between the laths, trying to get some to go between some of the stones to hold it all together. Wish me luck!

I wanted to clean up the laths and perhaps polish them a bit, but any movement sends a shower of loose earth and stones to the floor, much like the collapse of a mine pit prop! On a much smaller scale, of course! So a finish on the laths will have to wait.

Yesterday I painted some oil undercoat on the remainder of the beams in the bedroom and it looks good...



However, the first half, at the other end of the room, which has had two coats of Annie Sloane paint plus one in between of an undercoat, and looks OK at first glance, is still bleeding through in a few patches, so I feel I want to go all over these beams with the oil undercoat another time, or I will never be happy with it... For someone who is not a happy painter this is close to torture!




I know - I'm just making more work for myself... this is really the French version of the Forth Bridge!  Maybe I will frame a picture of it to remind me never to do this again!