A trap for visitors (and other weighty matters)

I've made a "trappe de visite" (inspection hatch) for the newly plasterboarded, but not painted, ceiling of the boiler room.

This is it, before any of the tidying up started:



and this is where it goes:



It allows access to a large set of ball valves set into the water supply for each of the various rooms in the barn, allowing individual supply pipes to be cut off - for replacing taps, etc - without affecting the rest of the system.

We've finally got curtains up in the bedroom:



and the bathroom is actually finished, the tiling is done and Caro has been hard at work painting the walls, the ceilings, and herself. She now has a stiff neck, and I have tiler's finger-tip. I've repeatedly used the same finger to smooth down the tile cement and the grout at the edge of the tiling (and off the joints), and as both the cement and the grout are abrasive, and contain cement, I've burnt the skin on the end of that finger. But the end result is fine, and I'm sure the skin will heal:



Today I've started tidying up with a view to finishing the plasterboard ceiling in the hall. It need the gaps at the edges by the beams filled and smoothed, rather a dusty job. And Caro is still painting - the shower room, this time.

And we have also started work laying the very last bit of floor, the concrete slab in the workroom. It will have a raised plinth at the outer edge, supporting the worksurface with a sink, the washing machine, fridge, etc - because the existing concrete isn't level. It slopes up to that edge, and you need a good couple of inches to be sure it doesn't crack. So here is the raised plinth:



and possibly tomorrow the rest of the floor will go down. Then we'll be able to tile it and a major source of dust will have finally gone.