Day 14

I've more or less finished the plastering - at least to the extend that I can do it. Most of it looks fine I think. I will do one more round of sanding today and a few spots might need another coat of plastering. This was pretty painstaking and definitely tougher to get a good clean finish than I imagined it. I got better at it with some practice but also the lack of time made it inconvenient. I would spend around an hour on it everyday when I got home but that meant putting the drop cloths over the fridge each time, cleaning the mud tray and knife and so on - so I really got to work on small sections at a time. Everything is secure, nothing is going to crack or anything but the walls could probably have been smoother. In any case, I am priming the ceiling tomorrow and sanding the walls for paint.

I am going back and forth on whether I should paint the walls now prior to installing the counter top and cabinets or wait. The argument in favor of waiting is that the counter top is more permanent than the paint and comes in fewer colors so one should match the paint color to the counter top. On the flip side, if the counter top and cabinets are not up - I can paint easier without worrying about smooth edges around cabinets etc. In the worst case, if the paint color simply doesn't match once I put up the counter top - I could repaint.. Another main reason why I want to paint first is so that I can finish off the messy part of the project with that. Right now the kitchen is a total disaster zone with the sanded powder everywhere, joint compound and tools lying around etc. I try to avoid it as much as possible except to heat up food. I would really like to just finish the paint so I can clean up the kitchen so that it doesn't look like this when I come back from the week in Florida.

I'm getting a plumber to come tomorrow to give me an estimate on changing the sink out. The electrician who had come had offered to do it though he wasn't a licensed plumber. Depending on whether I decide to install cabinets before painting, I might just get the new sink installed tomorrow or wait..