Skirting the Issue

There are jobs about the house that I love and there are jobs that I hate. Fixing skirting board is one that I hate. Normally it's one of those things that you know you need to do but it's gets left for ages, propped up against the wall waiting to be mitred and nailed.

The skirting I fitted today was made all the more painful a job by virtue of this being such an old house. Not only are most the "corners" not square or floors level, but the skirting itself is a strange size/shape and hard/impossible to source. Wanting to avoid as much fitting as I could I left most of the good skirting on the wall. I then took a small sample of that I removed round some timber merchants. They all shook their heads and sent me elsewhere, only for me to end up where I began. Here they cut all the wood I would need in order to make my own boards. You can see below how I've been cramping each length together - you can only seem to buy 7" board nowadays, whereas I needed 9"!

In the photo the skirting in the bay doesn't look that bad. Indeed I was pleased with the quick and easy results of the mitre saw I'd hired. That's until I actually fixed it to the walls and the gaps started to appear. When all the boards were fixed to the wall it looked like a real bodge job. That's when I got the B&Q multi-puropose one-coat plaster out! It's amazing what you can fill with this stuff ;o) I'll try and follow up this post with a photo of the results. It's lucky that we are painting it all in the end anyway. It's amazing the mistakes you can cover with a few coats of gloss.

It's funny that my dad has been more than eager to come over, every day since we moved in, so as to help out. However, as soon as I mentioned skirting boards, we've not seen him for a couple of days. I know why! It's not a job I would ever like to do again. Here's hoping the rest of the house can have its boarding left on...