On the Verge

Barring a ceiling I do not want to repaint, my dining room is ready for wallpaper.

Yaaaayyyyyyy!!!! from the peanut gallery.

This means in the past month I got the rest of the old paste off the walls.

Handy scraping tool

And finished washing the yucky mill dirt off from behind the trim.

And used Gardz to stabilize the surface of the drywall on the wall between the dining room and the kitchen.

Gardz = shiny

And used the Big Wally's to close up a plaster crack over the "archway' to the living room.  And to stabilize the plaster at the bottom of the left side of the north wall, and at the bottom edge of the west windows.

And spackled and sanded all the dents and holes and all that sort of thing.  (Used joint compound, actually, it being what I had on hand.)

And took down the register cover and spray-painted it hammered bronze.

Before

Screen wire cover, to keep the kittehs out of the ductwork

And used paint and walnut-tinted shellac to fake a natural finish on the silly undersized cornice molding.

And shellacked the window jambs and heads where they'll be exposed once the trim is back up.

And primed the whole room (and was glad I had enough left to finish the job).

And touched up the perimeter of the ceiling with primer where the shellac got out of hand.

And did the Big Wally's on a couple of corners of the ceiling where I discovered it was sagging a litle when I was touching up the perimeter.

And spackled and sanded the holes left from that, and hope no one notices, since a big enough chip of the ceiling paint didn't stick to the Big Wally washers such that I can get a computer match at the Big Blue Box Store, and I do not want to paint the ceiling!!

Before sanding.  Definitely.

Of course it helps to have an excellent Inspector of Works.

Wallpapering, which will entail railroading blankstock under and hanging the good stuff on top, will have to wait until I can be sure of a second pair of hands.  It's not a job I can do alone.

And yes, I'm pretty well reconciled to using the celery-green-tinged William Morris "Savernake" paper I have eight rolls of.  Not like I can return it after five years.  Or sell it on Ebay and replace it with another dye lot, the price has gone up so high.  I'll deal with it.  It should be fine.

Immer Zu

I'm still here.  Actually, I haven't really been any place much other than here.  Not working on the houseblog, no.  But working on the house.  Workingworkingworkingworkingworking ....

Tired, crabby, frustrated; no way I'll get done what I'd hoped to get done by the time my friend from England arrives on the 18th, but still at it, obsessed, devoted, immolated.

I'm only up at my computer now because I was seized suddenly by the fear that I'd forgotten in the throes of house idolatry to pay one of my credit card bills.  So I left the trim I was working on in the basement to run up to the 3rd floor study to make sure.

Yes, it was already paid.  And I'm paying this debt to houseblogdom, putting down a minuscule installment payment on what I owe to my two or three readers, to give you some indication on what's been going on at the Sow's Ear the past month.

Heaven help us, what hasn't?  The spray foam people finally came (no, that was February, but never mind, they did).  The roof repair contractor and his son showed up three or so weeks ago (he was originally scheduled for early December) and took care of everything on the list, and a couple-three other things beside.  What they couldn't rectify was the wet on the face of the chimney breast in the living room, which issue they diagnosed as being due to my having no liner for the hot water heater in my chimney-- the warm water vapor condenses on the cold brick et voilà! failing skim coat and sticky old wallpaper paste on the living room side.  So I've had plumbing contractors marching through sizing up the height of the chimney, and I've accepted a bid from one who's supposed to come install me a metal liner early next week, hopefully before Janet* arrives.  And things have gotten to the point with my own work that I had to get the electrical contractors in to bid out installing properly-grounded circuits for the outlets that go in the baseboards that I hope soon to be reaffixing.  One bid was so astronomical I thought I should suck it up and rewire them myself after all; the other, from the guy who seemed to know more what he was talking about, was low enough to make me feel it wouldn't be worth the time and tribulation for me to try to do it myself.  And unlike the other guy, he can work with the trim installed.  I plan to have him come in May, if I've got the place reassembled by then.

But me?  Damn.  A short list, in no particular order: 
1)  Shellacking woodwork, starting with the stairhall's pieces and going on to the ones for the living room.
2)  Buying select white pine 1x boards and having my friend Steve* rip them to size to replace missing or hopelessly damaged yellow pine originals.
3)  Shellacking white pine replacement pieces to try to get them to match the yellow pine originals (semi-successful, if you don't mind a little streakiness). 
4)  Finishing up the Big Wally's plaster repair I started last month.
5)  Finding out that even Big Wally's won't get rid of a wall bulge caused by settling from the floor above.
6)  Doing an obsessive amount of research on how properly to hang my William Morris wallpaper, and finding out about blankstock liner paper and mix-it-yourself wheat paste and happening on a good source for both.
7)  In the course of said researches, learning about a homemade device that should make it easier for me to remove the old paper from the sheetrocked walls in the dining room and front room, and pulling together the pieces and parts and beginning to make my own.
8)  Trying repeatedly to get the old wallpaper paste removed from the living room walls and failing miserably, unless my goal is to take off all the previous owners' repairs.
9)  Carrying on an extensive email correspondence with the proprietor of the concern referred to in No. 6 and learning from him a) that I can use a Zinsser product called Gardz to encapsulate the old paste and size, and b) what "size" is and how to make it.
10)  Doing the Big Wally's routine on the east wall of the living room, especially down at the bottom along the line of the baseboard, where the plaster seemed to be flapping in the breeze.
11)  Ordering Gardz over the Internet (Lowe's and HD don't carry it around here) and applying a first coat on the north and east LR walls.
12)  Cutting to fit and screwing in pieces of drywall to replace the plaster that fell to pieces when I removed the baseboard along the east living room wall.
13)  Taping cracks in my living room walls with drywall tape and mudding, sanding, and mudding again.  (Which I hate-hate-hate!).
14)  Locating the most workable location for the outlet I've wanted for years in the 1st floor hall, and cutting the hole for it (happily, it falls right in the drywall under what I call the portal between the hall and the living room, where my POs-1 partially closed in what used to be a large doorway.
15)  Taking up the ridiculous sheet vinyl from the hallway floor, and discovering that the plywood underneath seems to be glued as well as nailed down.
16)  Doing the long-postponed measured drawing of the existing structure under the 1st floor hall, and submitting it to the John Bridge Tile Forum to find out if it can support ceramic tile.
17)  Getting an answer from one of the tile pros there that my structure might do, but unless I tear out both the plywood and the original tongue-and-groove subfloor and sink new plywood between the joists, I'll be way out of Code due to the odd riser height at the bottom stair.
18)  Saying O crap! and checking into linoleum tile and other, thinner alternatives, and deciding probably I'll clean up and smooth down the plywood that's there and paint a faux tile pattern instead.
19)  Using some medium red-brown paint left behind by my POs on the existing LR cornice moulding to even out the place where they or somebody got ceiling paint on it, then going over that with two coats of warm-walnut tinted shellac (north wall cornice is done; east wall in progress).
20)  Stripping, repairing, and sanding the trim that goes on the kitchen side of the doorway from the 1st floor hall-- nasty job, since it doesn't seem ever to have been shellacked, so the paint wouldn't just chip.
21)  Removing the rest of the wallpaper from the east and most of the south living room walls (yes, this should have come a lot sooner, but I just remembered).
22)  With the help of my friend Frieda*, remeasuring for the new chair rail for both storeys in the stairhall, sizing the lower part of the walls there, and hanging blankstock on them, but not before going back and filling and patching ten dozen dips and holes I never noticed till the work light was shining on them.
23)  Except for an occasional mowing and covering the roses when a frost warning's on, letting the garden take its own course this spring.

Did I say this was supposed to be a short list?  Gaw.  And I need to go back down the basement and prime that kitchen side trim and the trim for the doorway to my bedroom, because oh, yeah, I got the loan of a nail gun today, and if all goes well I can start rehanging trim this weekend and that needs to go up before-- well, never mind, it'd take too long.


Immer zu!  Immer zu!  Ohne Rast und Ruh'!

Off Hours

Remind me that I need to reset my body clock to normal human hours.  Nothing to do with Daylight Saving Time coming on last night, just a reflection on the cockeyed hours I've been keeping this weekend.  Up till 3:00 or 4:00 Friday night/Saturday morning, not out of bed till Saturday noon.  Up till 5:00 AM DST this morning, not up and getting dressed till nearly 2:30.

My excuse is that I was getting things done on the house these past two nights/early mornings, I felt awake enough to keep going, shouldn't I take advantage of the opportunity?  Whereas if I went to bed at a decent hour, there was no guarantee I'd lug myself out of bed the next day to correspond. 

But this is ridiculous.  Today by my mixed-up timing I missed the opportunity to make it to church anywhere, and I missed over half of a beautiful, bright, pleasant day.  Shameful.

I did as much with it as I could.  Got out and pruned all the roses (barring the groundcover ones) for the spring, as well as the crepe myrtles and the blueberry bush.  Tied up the tall stem of the Don Juan rose so it'll climb, and cut back a lot of the English ivy that's overwhelming the clematis and the Sympathie rose in the back.

Got the first application of joint compound into the holes and gouges in the living room north wall, and around the two corners a yard or so to the west and east.  That place I chiselled out at the upper right hand of the doorway casing is going to be really tricky to get right.  The joint compound is really too loose for the job, but it's what I have on hand.  The whole wall and the problem corner especially will need repeated applications before it's through.

After a late dinner, got the west dining room window lintel gooped up with wood filler where the big splinter came out Friday night.  How long did I say it was?  At least a foot in reality.

    Was planning to do something else on the living room tonight, but I guess not.  What it is, either my POs or the POs-1 (I think it was the former), when they repainted the ceilings, got ceiling paint on the cornice moulding.  The cornice is dinky enough as it is, but the white paint along the top of it reduces its effective height by about a quarter inch.  I don't have the time or money right now to replace it with the more robust moulding the living room and dining room, if not the front room, should have.  So for the time being I've planned to paint over that white with the same cooked mushroom brown color (the can is downstairs in the paint locker), then go over it with shellac so it'll more or less match the rest of the trim.

But as it turned out, the remaining quart or so of the mushroom brown is covered with mold.  OK, Plan B!  There's an unused quart of a warmer medium brown down there, and I think I'll repaint the cornice entirely with it, with the shellac over.  But it's been sitting so long it's badly separated.  No point in me trying to stir it up myself tonight.  After work tomorrow I'll take the can to Lowe's, where it's from, and get them to put it on the shaker.  And maybe I can remember to ask if they can order the kind of wallpaper paste I need while I'm there (Roman's "Golden Harvest" GH34.  Wheat paste. "For English wallpapers."  Well, there ya go.)

Thinking about the cornice again.  If I actually have some money for frivolities someday, I want to get cornice moulding of a more appropriate size and nail it up using the existing as blocking.  What's there is 2" high if it's lucky, so it shouldn't get in the way.

A Saturday Night's Entertainment

Making slow and desultory progress stripping the last of the paper and glue off the north living room wall and those parts of the west and east walls I can reach from the ladder.  The big question is, is the whitish goop that appears to have been rolled over the walls, thicker in some places and thinner in others, wallpaper paste or is it size?

If it's paste it has to come off.  If it's size it can stay, and I'll just paint a fresh coat of primer/size over it.

. . . Inclined to think it's size.  The glue that was on the stairhall walls came off really easily with the vinegar and water.  This is more like, well, paint.  It's true I'm picking up some kind of viscous white stuff with my wallpaper scraper, but they say that vinegar can dissolve finish plaster and spackle.  And there's plenty of the latter here.

And it's not like I'm painting these walls.  I don't think they've ever been painted, and anyone who tried now would be a fool.

Wait a minute, though.  Maybe they've never been painted, per se, but that doesn't mean they've always had paper.  Because I just discovered something.  I think the living room walls were colored at one point.  Not painted, but the top coat of the plaster seems to be tinted with an old-gold pigment.  You'd think I would have noticed that before, but with the size-goop over it it looked brown.  I thought it was the brown coat or something.  But no, this is streaky.  Nice color and effect, especially with my black marble fireplace-- which wasn't here in 1916.

No, I'm not going to try to clean the walls so well the gold shows all over.  The more I scrape, the more I destroy the old spackle patches.  It'll all be covered anyway.

. . . But hey, what's this I see?  Around the top of the living room, to about 11" down, there's a band of lighter yellow-gold!  And there's patched holes along the line between the two colors.  Hey, do you think this room had a frieze band?  And a picture rail?  Looks like it!  (I love domestic archaeology.)

A lot less fun is seeing all the little cracks in the plaster on the east and west walls.  And that doesn't include the ones some previous owners covered with paper tape.

My wallpaper scraper is playing merry hell with that paper tape.  And leaving random gouges in previous applications of levelling spackle.  I hate to think how much joint compound I'm going to have to use to get a decent surface.  And if I may be permitted to worrywart further, I hope the bulge in the upper part of the north wall won't disrupt the matching of my wallpaper.  The old beige moire-effect paper didn't betray any problems.  And I don't think the bulge is recent.  Trouble is, a survey of my photo collection has shown that apparently I didn't take any pictures of that wall when I took down the trim.  Guess I didn't think it was interesting enough.

I couldn't stand the way the plaster is so much thicker and protrudes so much up there on the righthand side at the corner where the doorway jamb and head casing meeting and where the trim has to be nailed up again.  I fetched the jamb trim piece up from the basement to gauge how much plaster I should knock off so it won't stick out so much.  Chiselled away at the finish coat, and I think I've got the gap down to an acceptable level.
 
The trim piece won't lie totally flat, however.  It has a bit of a warp to it.  I've noticed that in some other trim pieces, and I've worried that it might be my fault, for leaving the trim standing on end the past three or four years.  But how possibly would any of it have enough moisture left in it after more than ninety years to warp?  I certainly keep the humidity in the basement at a reasonable level.  Still, there it is.  Have I messed things up by working so slow?

But then I recall when the trim was still up, how in many places I observed that the jamb casing was sitting cockeyed to the lintels.  Much more likely it was installed a little green back in 1916 or whenever, and warped in place.  I know I've been knocking down a lot of dried filler where the trim edges used to be.  But clearly, this should put a damper on my dreams of reinstalling it all straight.

Oh, Fudge

I've been working on resecuring the plaster on the south wall of my living room since this time in February.  I'd been contemplating repairing that plaster since July of 2007 at least.  Now, a major cause of procrastination is the fear that a project won't come out the way you hope and visualize.  A major cause of depression is when you discover that your fears very likely were right.

The only problem with the plaster, as I originally perceived it, was up at the righthand corner of the cased opening between the living room and dining room, where the doorway jamb and head casings come together.  When I pulled off the trim to strip it, lo these many years ago, I found that the plaster protruded beyond the room face of the casing a good half inch.  Meaning that the face trim gapped more than a little.  Previous owners had fudged that over with spackle and paint, but I'm going back to natural wood. 

When I learned about Rory Brennan's Big Wally's PlasterMagic® system, I knew it was just the thing to take care of that protruding area and make the plaster nice and flat to receive the newly-shellacked trim. 

But things have not been that simple.  Back on the 9th of February when I started drilling the holes for the conditioner and adhesive, I noticed, for the first time in eight and a half years of living here, that the entire top fourth of the south living room wall bulges outward.  On the righthand side, especially, the protuberance was a half inch and more.  Clearly, I was going to need more Big Wally's adhesive than I had on hand.

Insert interval while I got around to ordering more tubes, while it shipped, and while it sat in the box in my dump of a living room waiting to be used.  All right.  So this past Sunday, I got to work.  And noticed two odd things:

First, that the plaster bulge on the righthand side, where I started my operations, went in a little with the washers and screws, but not as much as I expected.  Only a quarter inch at the most.  But the plaster wasn't flexible and it didn't give, and the wall developed no cracks as I drilled the washers in, though that's what you might expect if the keys where pressing against the lath.

Second, that up at the crucial corner the plaster wouldn't move in hardly at all.  At this point I did have cracking before and the washers caused more yet.  It wasn't salvageable.  So I pulled some goodish-sized chunks of it out, and saw-- And saw that up there the lath sits at the most an 1/8"back from the room face of the wood casing.  Seriously.  I poked the lath and it's in there solid.  It has no place to go.  Around that area the plaster thickness ranges from 3/8" to 1", and it's no wonder the door trim needed some fudging before!  It's going to need some fudging again when it's time to fill in the holes--but I'll describe that when I get to it.

But what did this mean?  That maybe the plaster at the top of the wall is thicker and the old wallpaper concealed the problem?  No idea.  The plaster I'd treated seemed well-secured enough, and I let it go because I was out of washers anyway.

Well, now.  Give it a few days for the adhesive to try and for me to take care of other business.  So Monday night I'm up there on the ladder snugging up the areas above the doorway and on the lefthand side.

And what's this?  In these places, where the bulge wasn't as bad, the plaster moved in a good 3/8" or more, with a soft, subdued, stomach-squeezing whhummphh!   What the dickens?  Why did that pull in but not the worse area to the right?  Was there something wrong with my drill bit, and did I not drill the holes deeply enough on the right-hand side?  Did the whole wall actually need    to be done?  After all this labor and material, was I still at risk of it failing and falling down?

Not to mention that where I power-screwed the anchors in too hard, the plaster just crumbled.  But the surface of the wall looks fine!  What's up with this?

Oh, fudge.  Aggrieved, aggravation, frustrated, crabby.  Last night I tried the conditioner and adhesive in a few more places on the upper righthand part of the wall, trying to pull that bulge in a little farther.  Drill penetrated more than an inch, inch and an eighth even, but the pull-in when I tightened the washers was a fraction of that.  Maybe the plaster is extra-thick at the top of the wall.  Or maybe the big hairy plaster/lath gap is there-- full of keys cushioned by all the Big Wally's I pumped in.  However it is, I can't do anything more to true it up-- and no, demolition and drywall is not an option.

This is not what I had in mind nearly five years ago.  I'm holding my breath that a lot of joint compound and the new wallpaper will disguise the mess.  I even have visions that the wallpaper will end up holding the wall together.  But I have no call to throw rocks-- or chunks of plaster-- at my fudging previous owners.  It's a pot we're all in together.

"A Stitch in Time . . . " . . . or Overkill?

Looks like it's going to be Tuesday morning before I can even think of priming and painting my Study ceiling.

Why? you ask.

Because earlier this evening (Friday) I was taking out the washers from the plaster repair I did on Wednesday, and I noticed three things:

1. The screws were still a little sticky.  Oh-oh.  The adhesive I used in those was from the tube I'd cut open two years ago.  Does it go bad?  Maybe I'd better leave the rest of those washers in awhile longer, to make sure the glue is really cured.
2. Yes, that crack was a paper tape repair that was coming loose.  No telling why it chose to delaminate now, but I should be grateful it did. Could've popped off after I'd repainted the whole ceiling.  At any rate, once I get the tape fragments and the loose paint layer and skim coat off, it's going to take a few coats of spackle/joint compound to smooth off.  At least. And . . .
3. I was pushing on the plaster in that area.  Guess what.  Yeah, it gave.  Obviously, I didn't get it all secured on Wednesday.  The gap wasn't much, maybe an eighth of an inch of so, but enough to make me want to stop it now.

So around 9:00 I did the process and drilled in another handful of Big Wally washers, conditioner and adhesive behind.

Couple of hours later, I'm doing the push test again.  Did I just feel some give in the area around where I just did the previous repair?  Yes.  Guess I needed closer coverage.  So I went through the process again.

Hour later (by this time it's nearly midnight), I examined the ceiling slope and got nervous about a vertical crack farther into the room.  Taped up the dropcloth and drilled a couple of exploratory holes.  Yep, about an eighth of an inch between the lath and the plaster.  Better do it now or be sorry later.  Ten more holes drilled and vacuumed out, ten more holes conditioned and squirted with adhesive, ten more washers power-screwed in.

So let's do the calculations:  Allowing the full 48 hours for the newest ones to cure (and I think I'd better, this being a ceiling), that puts me to after midnight Sunday night.  Maybe I might get two coats of spackle in the holes applied, dried, and smoothed down on Monday.  Maybe.  And a last coat over the messy spot Monday night.

Which brings me to Tuesday.

But nothing's getting done on the 3rd floor on Tuesday, because that's the day my friend Hannah's* husband Steve* has said he's going to come over and help me install my water softener and filter.†

Wednesday, maybe?
_______________________________
†My friend Frieda's* son Mike*, who incidentally is Hannah and Steve's nephew, called me last Saturday and told me his schedule wouldn't allow him to get to it till next winter.  So Steve's going to tackle it, and I hope he doesn't do it all, but teaches me how to solder.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Or is that "one step forward, two steps back"?

No priming got done in the 3rd floor Study today, and none will till sometime on Friday.

Or not.

It's not so much that I've gotten perfectionistic about the ceiling patches I've been working on.  It's true that I've wet sanded and reapplied at least two more coats of spackle today, but that's because in the stark light of day I was able to see a lot of irregularities I missed last night.

No, something else is causing the slowdown.

Ever since the Great Plaster Disaster of 2007-2009, I've had the nervous habit of pushing on the sloped plaster ceiling of my Study wherever I notice a hairline crack.  I've had enough of crashing plaster for one house, and while I enjoy the pillowy, organic effect of my 3rd floor ceiling, I need to know, and know right away, if any curve or bow actually means key failure and imminent doom.

Enlarge to see cracks.  Sort of.

So I push, and I wonder, "Did that give, or was that just my fingers flexing?"  Worrywart!  It's just the fingers.  But early this afternoon, I was going round with the wet sponges smoothing out the spackle I applied last night, and there, towards the bottom of the ceiling slope on the northwestern side of the room, I saw a horizontal crack I hadn't noticed before.  Actually, it looked like some previous owner had used paper tape for a repair, and it'd picked now to begin to come loose.  Should I peel it and see what happens?  No!!  Give it the push test.

Oh, dear.  That gave.  That plaster definitely gave.

All right, I know what to do.  Time to call in Big Wally.

Downstairs I go.  Plastic dropcloths from the back porch.  Painter's tape and the unopened box of PlasterMagic adhesive from the living room.  Drill, drill bit, caulking gun, Big Wally's conditioner and anchors (with screws) from the basement workshop.

But wait a minute.  Where was the 3/16" masonry bit?  It should be in the top drawer next to the workbench.  And where, o where did I put the rest of my Big Wally's supplies?

Eventually I found the latter in their box underneath the workbench, safely out of the way.  But I could not find that drill bit anywhere.

O well.  I needed to go to Home Depot anyway to exchange that 10' length of copper tubing (that's another story).  So off I went, and while standing in the tool aisle consulting with the clerk, I realized that, Idiot! I'd been suffering from some sort of brain glitch and visualizing a three-eighths inch bit when I'd searched that drawer.  My 3/16" bit had been in plain sight all along.

No matter.  It was probably dull anyway.  It certainly is dirty.  And there was that copper to take care of.

Once I got home, I had the target area of the Study ceiling drilled and conditioned in good time (something to do while the oven was preheating for my supper pizza).  Earlier, I'd been happy to find one full tube and one partial tube of Big Wally's adhesive in the box under the workbench, the latter still in the spare caulking gun.  When it came time to inject it into the holes, I gave the handle a good hard squeeze to clear out the dried stuff from the tip, asking myself, "I wonder if this adhesive is still good and liquid?"

Gray smudges are on the camera lens, alas!

Whoop!!*  Yes, judging from what ended up spattered around the wall and on the file cabinet, it was.  That's when I realized that the bucket of water and the sponge needed to be brought back upstairs.

But that didn't take long to clean up, and I had the adhesive injected and the anchors screwed in in time for me to go down and eat my pizza.  And for my boikitteh Huw to get the oven door fully open and steal a piece, but that's another another story.

Got the repairs done a little before 6:00, which, if I gave the adhesive the minimum twenty-four hours to cure (directions say 24 to 48), would mean I could remove the anchors tomorrow evening, spackle over the holes, and maybe prime on Friday.

But now that looks doubtful, doubtful indeed.  For later this evening, I was doing the push test again.  And even though I indulged in what surely is overkill in the spacing of my holes and anchors, I was still detecting some give.  And then I let my nosy fingers range to the left, especially around another, vertical, hairline crack.  Push, push.  Oh, dear.  Let's put the drill bit back in and check.  Oh, dear, oh, dear.   That bit was going in way too far.  In a lot of places.  Definitely some significant plaster-lath separation along that crack, and in the field between it and my earlier repair.

It's treated now, and the only thing flexing in the push test is my fingers.  But the earliest I could think of taking out the anchors would be sometime Friday morning.  And the way spackle tends to sink in holes, that'll mean at least two applications to get them smoothly filled.  So Saturday, maybe, at the earliest, to be thinking about primer?

I can always amuse myself teaching myself how to sweat copper pipe in the meantime.
________________________
*Not the word I actually used.

Filling Holes

Just to prove I continue to make progress, here are my stairs with the holes I filled yesterday.

I hope to get the treads medium-sanded tomorrow.  No excuse not to, even if I do get called in to work.

But here's something scary:  When I was cleaning up the dust on the stairs and bannister rail yesterday, I noticed I had cracks in my wall plaster at the point where the wall opens up to the downstairs hall and the downstairs ceiling comes in.  That place was really bad a year and a half ago, and I put a lot of work into pulling up the plaster and spackling the cracks.  Now I have this three-way hairline in the faux finish paint job.

Carp.  I don't know if it's the plaster or the spackle.  Either way, can't things just stay fixed?

Et Voila!

No, I didn't have my surgery this past Thursday. More on that later.

But a week ago Friday, the 19th, Joe Venn the plasterer did make his fourth and final visit to finish up the work on my 3rd floor Study ceiling. Things have been a little . . . distracted . . . around here, so it was only this afternoon that I got around to taking any After pictures.

Today's task was to sand the finish coat he applied on Wednesday, and touch the surfaces up with spackle wherever that might be needed. He nearly wasn't able to accomplish that, because I had to be out this morning and totally forgot to carry out the arrangements I'd made to let him in. Thank goodness he had some time after lunch to come back, since his bookings this past week would have prevented him from working on my job for who knows how long.

Anyway, here it is nine days later and I think it's pretty amazing to have a nice, smooth surface after months of staring at lath and broken keys. And damn! am I glad I didn't give in to the suggestions that I patch in a piece of drywall and skim coat it over. Would have been asking for trouble, since there's no way the materials would have worked well together over time. I'd forever be reminded of where the patched places were.

Not that there won't be any stress cracks in the new plaster. Joe said that would be normal, as it cures. Any that appear, I can skim on a little joint compound and sand it down, before painting.

One thing he was very emphatic about, is that I should prime the new plaster at any cracks, before I apply the compound. I told him that made sense to me. Otherwise, the bare plaster will leach all the water out of the patching material and hey, presto! there's your crack again. If it's primed with BINS or Zinsser or something like that, you won't have that problem. Yeah, he said, but I'd be surprised at how many clients of his don't believe that and think they can leave out that step.

I was very gratified to have him tell me I need to wait at least a month for the new plaster to cure before I can even think of painting it. Oh, good, that means I don't have to feel guilty for being physically incapable of doing that while I'm recuperating. I can look at the filled-in places and say, "That plaster is curing. It's Not Time to paint it yet."

It's definitely been curing the past week or two. A sharp, fizzy smell, that gets up your nose. Nice, that the weather hasn't been too chilly, and I could keep the Study windows open.

I think Joe did a good job. Maybe I could have done as well . . . if I practiced for five or ten years. The money was well-spent. So if anyone in the area northwest of Pittsburgh needs a plasterer, leave me a comment and I can put you in touch. Or just look up "Venn Plastering" in the Yellow Pages.

But . . . as I intimated above, my surgery was postponed. Because in all the errand-running and cleaning and preaching and concert-singing and staying up way too late I engaged in the end of last week and the beginning of the week just past, I managed to pick up the local cold. And a runny, drippy, sodden, snowplow-run-over-your-body-achy cold it proved to be, too. I called the surgeon's office last Wednesday morning to get their advice and the nurse said No, they weren't operating on me like that. The stupid tumor's got to come out, but it isn't that urgent.

And the reason it slipped my mind to make sure Joe the Plasterer could get in the morning of the 19th? Oh, that was a little matter of a followup ultrasound I had to go get because the CT scan from the previous Monday had revealed a suspicious "indeterminate lesion" on my liver. Thank God, thank God, the sonogram showed it to be a benign cyst.

But you can see why "distracted" has been the operative term!

Calling in the Reinforcements

Well, I said I was going to do it, and I did.

I hired a plasterer instead of redoing my DIY Drama disaster study ceiling myself.

Joe the Plasterer got started yesterday morning around 9:00 o'clock before I went off to the local hospital for a CT scan (please, God, could it please reveal that my tumor is benign!). By the time I returned a bit after 11:00, he'd chipped the rotten plaster off the flat part of the ceiling and pulled off the pieces I'd reaffixed crookedly to the sloping part over the stairs. The new metal lath was almost all up in both places, and it was time for him to mix up the perlite-enhanced gypsum plaster for the brown coat.

I came up and watched him for a time while he was putting that on. Funny, to me, to see plaster without hair, but the perlite performs the same function.

Having a noontime lunch appointment, I left Joe at the house to finish. When I returned around 2:30, he was gone and the brown coat was finished.

Last night, I got up there with my razor blade scraper and sliced off the glue nubs left from the Big Wally's plaster anchors. And scraped off some more of the loose latex paint.

Joe was back this morning and put on the first finish coat. Damn. It looks nice already.

And he put a finish coat on the places where I'd done my PlasterMagic work, yay! Hadn't expected him to; I have a whole bucket of joint compound and I'd hoped to get to that myself before he came.

He's to return tomorrow to apply a second finish coat, since today's will shrink a bit. Then again on Friday to sand it and do any final finishing.

I told Joe about the blog. "If I don't like a contractor's work, I give them a fake name. If I think they did a great job, I give their real name, if they like, and how to contact them. Free advertising."

He keeps this up, he gets the real name treatment. And yes, his given name really is Joe.

Some Actual Work

By all rights, I should have been doing my income taxes today. A lot will depend on the AGI it throws up. But TaxAct.com is taking forever to send me the user ID I can't remember, so I'll deal with that when it comes.

So instead I actually got something done on the house.

Late this morning, I gave another crack in my Study ceiling the Big Wally's treatment. Funny, but it wasn't as bad as I'd thought. Only one or two places were even sagging at all.

Oh, well. I'll rake out the crack and fill it and the drill holes with joint compound that it should be fine.

Another plasterer came around about 11:30 to give me a secod bid on my plastwork. Guy wants $50 than the other plasterer I spoke to in late January, but he wants to use 1/4" sheetrock with finish plaster over. And he doesn't think the loose crumbly plaster in the flat part of the ceiling really needs to be cleaned out. Hmm. Not so sure about that. I may go with the other guy regardless.

Then this afternoon I started painting the 2nd floor hall closet. I hadn't planned to do it, but once it was cleaned out so I could strip the floor, I realized it couldn't stay as it was. Beige walls, beige ceiling, beige trim, beige everything. Very dark, very dull, very drear.

Here's how it looks now:

Whaaaa??? What was that about the beige paint being dark?

Patience, patience, mes amis. My idea is to use white glaze over that dark green base and end up with a soft green that will coordinate with the green-rose-light peach color of the hall.

Well, that was the idea. But down the basement I found that the can of white glaze is very small and I'd rather save it for touch ups in the kitchen. Well, all right. The little jars of sample paint make excellent glaze colorant . . . yep, here they are in the paint cupboard. I think I'll do a pale green first and then a cream color over that. That'll be even better than flat white. But . . . where did I put that other gallon of glaze solution? I know I had it!

Never mind. I'll look for it tomorrow. Barring unforeseen accidents, I still have tomorrow.

Awkward News

This isn't the sort of thing I'd usually mention on my houseblog, but considering that in the near future I might be posting even less often than I have been lately, I suppose I should say something about it.

"It" has to do with some physical symptoms I took to my doctor this past week. Had an imaging test yesterday, the doctor took a look at the results, and unless some strange and extraordinary and happy anomaly is taking place, I have cancer.

And not a particularly curable cancer, either.

Driving home, I got to thinking about the house and the state it's in. I'd really, really like to get it done, at least the wood trim and wallpaper projects I've had going the past, oh, seven years . . .

Weird, huh? A person's facing major surgery and chemotherapy, which maybe it won't be any use in the end, and she's worrying about the renovations to her house???

Well, yeah. Though I suppose I don't have to explain the impulse to any diehard houseblogger.

Why do I care? For any number of reasons, in no particular order all jumbled in together.

Because if I do peg out in the foreseeable future I'd like to think I'd left something finished and beautiful behind. Because if I recover, I'd like an orderly environment to recuperate in. Because until I pay off my mortgage, I'm only the steward of this house, and it would be irresponsible to leave it torn limb from limb. Because working on the house will keep me from moping about my prognosis.

Yeah, I know there's no way I can get the trim refinished and back up before my surgery. At least, I hope there wouldn't be time for that. This isn't Canada or Great Britain-- yet. I want this damn growth out-- ASAP. But I do want to stop wasting time and get done what I can before I go in.

Of course, there's a lot of stoopy pleh business things I'll have to take care of when I would rather be shellacking trim or whatever. So I think I'll try to come up with the funds to have the plasterer do the repairs in my Study ceiling. I really wanted to do it myself. This past week I found a local store that can sell me all the plastering supplies I need, and I had it on my calendar to go buy them today. But no. As much as I'd like to point to that ceiling repair and say, "Look at that! I plastered that! It's real keen!" that's not where my energies should go. White-painted plaster is white-painted plaster. Anybody (well, any plasterer) can do that. But I doubt I can get anyone to shellack my trim the way I want it done.

And God willing, I'll be spared to do that.

Plaster Solutions

Anybody wanna split a bag of Structo-lite?

It's weighing upon me that I'd probably better get the plaster on my 3rd floor study ceiling repaired before I get too deep into refinishing my 2nd floor hall floor. Last thing I need is plaster dust getting tracked into the finish before it's fully cured.

So this past Tuesday I had a contractor in, a plasterer used and recommended by an accountant whose new office I saw at our town's Christmas open house last November. The plasterer came, looked at the gaps, and said, "I can do that for $375.00."

This seems reasonable for the job; not as low as I'd hoped, but a lot less than the apocalyptic sums that sprang to mind last summer when it all started crashing down. If it weren't for the fact that he works on a cash or check basis and would want full payment once the job was finished, I would have signed him up then and there.

But I told him I'd have to look at my cash flow and see when I could schedule him to come.

That was last Tuesday. But yesterday I was reading Greg's Petch House blog, about the plaster he's repairing after the 6.4 earthquake they had in California early this month, and I got to thinking, Hey, maybe this is something I can do myself. If I give up trying to find genuine lime plaster and just go with Stucto-lite over wire mesh, I should be able to handle this, right?

I did a search on Houseblogs.net and read a few other people on the subject; unfortunately, the best source had pictures I couldn't view. But why couldn't I tackle it? The big thing is making sure I have all the equipment-- trowel, hawk, mixing trough, etc.-- I need before I start. Which I'm perfectly capable of organizing.

Well, yeah. But what's still worrying me is that bag of Structo-lite. The plaster guy told me it came by the 80 pounds. I used to be able to lift 80 lbs. I once could lift over 100 lbs.-- but that was more than twenty years ago. I've seen on-line you can get it in 50 lb. bags, but I doubt I can lift that, either.

So, does anyone want to split a bag with me? And I take only what I can carry?

And where do you get the stuff in western Pennsylvania, anyway?

Plaster, Irony, and Other Truly Valuable Building Materials

A couple weeks ago, as my entry in the Houseblogs.net/True Value Hardware DIY Drama contest, I posted on the Sturm und Drang that is the ceiling plaster over my third floor stairway. Or rather, that isn't the ceiling plaster over my third floor stairway, since so much of it ended up on the stairway. Therein I confessed my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault of Procrastination in fixing said plaster--leavened with a lot of excuses as to why I fell into it.

A day or two after I made that post I thought, Hey, wait a minute. There was another reason why I didn't repair that plaster before it fell down; why, last March when I had my ladder and my Big Wally's PlasterMagic repair kit on hand, I didn't get right to it. It wasn't that I didn't want to, or was suffering from a compulsion to get all the wood trim stripped first. It was because, well, the Big Wally's website was (and is) running a contest for the best videos of PlasterMagic repairs. The prize was $250, and I was determined to enter.

But I can't repair plaster and run a video camera at the same time. Whom could I get for a cinematographer to document my Atlantean effort? There was a neighbor kid with a camera and ambitions in the filmmaking direction, but she never seemed to be around when wanted. And what if she were standing within range of the damage as I worked and something should, well, happen? Didn't want the kid to get hurt. Maybe I should think of somebody else . . .

Stalemate. I kept on desiring that $250 prize and not coming up with anyone I could ask to make the video; I kept on stripping woodwork and not repairing the plaster . . . until June, when I finally tackled the ceiling and it tackled me back.

When Houseblogs.net and True Value combined to open the field for entries in the DIY Drama Contest, I thought about entering. I mean, mah dramah, let mii sho u itt. And thought some more. And a little more. (Do we discern a pattern?) Then shortly before the deadline, I pinned myself down and got the post written and submitted.

Then, having read the other submissions (and there were some impressive ones), I promptly forgot all about it, since there was no way I was going to win any of the $300 gift card prizes.

So imagine my astonishment when I got an email last week from Aaron at Houseblogs.net saying I'd won the drawing for one of the prizes!* Unbelievable, but true: Today the gift cards arrived from the contest coordinators!

So, thank you, Houseblogs.net, and thank you, True Value. I will add the latter to my Useful Links list and I encourage one and all to click on it.

But the situation is so ironic magnets fly to it. For the sake of a $250 prize I put off repairing my plaster until it fell down, which led to a post that got me a $300 prize to help me put it back up.

Yeah, I still do have to put it back up. I wonder, can I get a nice bucket of pre-slaked lime putty at my local True Value? Or maybe they can order it? It's not the easiest thing to come by . . .

Never mind. There are lots of other things this house needs that they can fix me up with very well. Without the procrastination!
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*Actually, it was a bit more complicated than that. The actual notices got hung up in my spam filter and it was through his comment on my Plaster Disaster post that he actually got the word to me.

The Great Plaster Disaster--A Retrospective

We have been invited to submit our DIY goofs for the Houseblogs.net/True Value /http://www.startrightstarthere.com/ DIY Drama Contest, and I can think of none better for me than this past June's Great Plaster Disaster, or The Dangers of Putting Things Off.


I noticed in June of 2007 that the plaster in the sloped ceiling over the stairs to my third floor study was cracked and started to sag a bit. I did nothing about it.

In July of 2007 I attended a lime plaster workshop taught by the great Rory Brennan, and learned all about his Big Wally's PlasterMagicTM
repair system. I still waited to do anything about my stairway plaster.

In my defense, I needed an adjustable ladder, to manage on the stairs. In April 2008 I received and learned to used my Little GiantTM ladder. I still did nothing about the sagging ceiling over the stairs to the study.

In March of this year I ordered and received my Big Wally's repair kit. And did nothing with it.

Finally, in June of this year I decided I'd get around to fixing my ceiling plaster. I put down the drop cloth, set up my ladder, and went to work.

Now, the Big Wally Way involves drilling holes in proximity to the cracks so conditioner and adhesive can be injected. Late on June 6, 2009, I drilled a few holes till the battery in the drill ran out, decided the hair in the plaster would hold it up awhile longer, and went to bed.

On June 7, 2009, I was back at the Great 3rd Floor Study Stairway plaster repair project, and, well, let me quote my entry of the day:

I am an IDIOT.

And any other hard names you'd care to spit at me.


About a half hour ago, I was drilling a Few More Holes to make sure I'd get the loose plaster well secured to the lath on the sloped ceiling. But the vibration was too much for it and a big square piece about 18" square came swinging down, literally hanging on by the cattle hair along one edge.

And I am a world class GOOF, BLUNDERER, and IDIOT. Did I dash over and ease it off in one piece? Did I, o did I?

No, I did not. I thought it'd be so cool to have a photo of it for the blog! So I picked up my digital camera, turned it on, and--

When I'd barely pressed the shutter, the monster loose piece came crashing down to smash on the stairs below, along with big chunks of the plaster that'd been next to it.

I wasn't even in time to get a shot of it falling.

Crap.

I picked up the broken pieces. Maybe I can put them back together like a puzzle and glue them back up?

Or maybe I'm going to have to use what I learned at Howard Hall Farm in July 2007 and fill in the gap with real haired lime plaster.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the Big Wally's conditioner to work so I can at least stick down the edges of what's still up there and keep it up.

6:58 PM-- I don't think so. No. I got part of the droopy plaster back up, so it's not falling down, but overall it's no go. Most of the plaster is gapping by 3" or more, and the part I secured still has a gap of 3/8" to ½" between it and the lath. There's too many broken off plaster keys behind it that're keeping it from snugging up. And the really godawful loose parts are so warped that when I try to bring them up with the washers and screws, they bend and break. That is, if I can even reach the lath with the ends of the screws. And I don't have enough Big Wally screws and washers to secure it all anyway.

To make it worse, some of the laths are loose from the rafters and I'm not sure how to put them back in place without causing more vibration and bringing more plaster down. And it's got to be put back in place, or the plaster will still be insecure.

O vae mihi! vae mihi! Oy vey iz mir!

Okay, Kate, deep breath. The loose pieces that are still up don't look ready to fall down. Not right away, at least. Now if an overweight robin lands on the roof, all bets are off. But right now, stay cool, don't make any sudden moves, and maybe, it'll stay up till tomorrow.

On June 8, 2009, I called the Brennans up in Vermont and Rory's wife Lauri advised me to brace what was still up so it'd stay up. But did I do it that day? Noooooo!

On June 9, 2009, I didn't even begin to do anything about securing the loose plaster until it was after noon.

But then I got onto it. I really did. Especially after I began to hear rustlings on the plastic dropcloth around the stairs, that were not made by any of my cats. Whoops! Keys failing! Down I ran to the basement virtuously to cut some 1x3's I had to the correct length. Meanwhile, up on the 3rd floor, several square feet more of plaster were giving up their hold and coming down. Okay, okay, I get the message! Definitely time for serious damage control. I was off to the blue and gray store; do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Bought four 1x2x6's and a box of coarse 2" drywall nails.

I cut the wood strapping to the right length and brought it upstairs to screw it to the ceiling.

This was the point when my low blood sugar kicked in and filled me with woe, angst, existential gloom, and general consternation. I could not get the screws to screw in. And when I did, they weren't long enough to hold. Aaaagghhh!!! I can't do this! What is wrong with me? Why aren't I rich enough to hire somebody to help me do this? Why am I single-- if I were married, I'd have someone around who'd have to help me do this! What if all the plaster in the room falls down? Why are all my friends not available right now? Why? why? why? Woe! woe! woe!

(Sorry.)

Going back to bed and sucking my thumb wasn't an option. So I did what any normal DIYer would do in the circumstances-- I drove back to Lowe's for a box of 3" coarse drywall nails and more 1x2 wood strips and a packet of Phillips-head driver bits. My head was so woolly I couldn't verbalize what the last item was called and the clerk looked at me as if I were the world's worst ditz.

Never mind; I found what I needed and got it home. With the help of a late lunch (which finally kicked in) and my old corded drill (which still works, thank God, and has better torque than the battery-operated one), I got the strapping up and hoped the plaster would now cease its rain of terror.

After that, I wasn't sure. Lauri Brennan thought it'd be easier for me to put the existing plaster pieces back up. But the more I looked at the void over my stairway, the more I wondered if I'd rather take a crack at replastering it.

I mean, I did take that class, didn't I?

By July 3, 2009, I'd restocked my supply of Big Wally's and got the remaining loose plaster secured. I confess I haven't done a thing since then to fill in the 5' x 3' gap on the ceiling over my third floor stairs. I need to decide what quality lime putty to use for my plaster.

And considering that I'll have to mix it outside and the weather's getting chilly, that lath may not be covered till next Spring.

But it ain't falling down anymore, is it? Nope. I can procrastinate some more.

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(This post was written for Houseblogs.net as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by True Value.