It took the plasterer four days to do this wall. That seems like a long time, but have you ever seen plaster being made and applied?
He has to mix it from powder into the perfect constancy, and then he applies it with a trowel and keeps going over it again and again until it’s perfectly smooth and even. (But first, he had to deal with a few holes in the wall.)
There’s a real art to plastering, and it’s a dying art, too. New homes have drywall instead, that comes in big sheets and is a lot easier to repair. But drywall is a bit flimsy and lightweight and it’s actually made of a sort of super-pressed paper.
I feel lucky to have this old place, with its smooth, solid, cool-to-the-touch plaster walls.
