We've spent countless hours cleaning this place. There is continual sawdust sweeping from cabinet construction, and a giant plaster clean-up operation to finish. Entire days have passed where I'm on the ladder, scraping tiny bits of plaster off of our beams with a plastic putty knife, and wiping them down with wet rags. Then, because the plaster lightly bleached our timbers (as seen in the photo below, taken a month ago), I've been re-finishing them with our favorite stain: Black Walnut Danish Oil.

Once the staining is done, I define the edges where the plaster meets wood with a razor knife, scraping off any plaster that had stain bleed or drip onto it. The end result is gorgeous. I usually enjoy this time-consuming process— with a good audiobook to capture my attention, the time flies.

Though we really should have taken more time to protect our timber frame before plastering, the truth is we're kind of glad we shirked the task. If our beams hadn't gotten messed up, I never would have taken the time to re-stain them, and we are LOVING how the darker beams look! In the picture below, the horizontal tie-beam has been re-stained; the vertical post to the right of it has not.