Preserving the plaster

When we bought this lovely old Victorian house Chris and I had a discussion about the difference between a renovation and a restoration. I said I wanted to keep as much of the original bones of the house as was reasonable. Of course we want to make it a liveable comfortable home, but we don’t want to destroy the very things that we purchased it for. At the time for me that included the plaster walls. One approach to renovating older homes is to tear out all of the plaster and simply use Jip rock because of the speed and ease of that process. I should’ve thought about that when I said no let’s keep the plaster walls. Well we certainly couldn’t have lived in the home while the walls were all taken out, it hasn’t been exactly a cakewalk living in it With the plaster remaining. I have this belief that plaster is hydrophobic, cleaning it requires more than just water you need soap and water and constant clean cloths. Then there’s the truth that every single wall in my house is covered with wallpaper, many layers of it . 

This is what is left in the hallway. Only three layers there. The top layer is already gone. 

The milk paint remains after the wall paper is gone. 


It took almost four hours to do this part of the hallway. 

Then there’s the fact that I have to wash them before they can be repaired and skim coated. 

Cement Pour

Happily for us we did not need to be out in the pouring rain. Our fantastic contractors came and formed up and the cement truck came. There are now foundation walls rising up underneath our newly lifted carriage house.

And later once the cribbing holding up the house is out, they will pour a concrete floor inside the carriage house to bind it all together.

Re-Wired

We got this stand lamp on one of our trips. It was an extra we hand t intended to buy. When we got home and plugged it in, it was a dud. Sigh. So, when I saw a lamp on the side of the road last week, put out for the once a year special trash, I grabbed it! The fact is, spare parts for electrical appliances and lights are just not available anymore. Your only option is to cannibalise another for parts. Rather like having a parts car. 

We had a project morning at the dining room table. My first test was to see if the wiring was the problem or if it was the switch. 

Switch!


The next step was trying to sort out how to get all the parts back together in a way that the lamp would be safe. That took quite a few tries. 

It just didn’t work with the glass shade we had hanging around. As you can see. The switch was inside the shade and the shade tested on the switch. Sigh. Back to the drawing board. 

A snazzy light bulb and no shade. For now. I still have some spare parts, so I could go back at it. But I’m happy for now. 

Today's Progress

The beardy boys were back in action forming up for pouring concrete under the walls of the barn. Christopher worked with Carl Cole and his helper Terry to get the fence post holes augured and the posts in place and braced. The beards were not quite done forming up and decided to get a small load of concrete for around the posts. in their usual superman fashion they filled their wheelbarrows and moved concrete to each pole location in that manner. Ted Gillis the mason also dropped his staging off in preparation for a major rebuilding 2 of the 3 chimneys and a minor cleanup of the central chimney.

Topher's Photos of this Week's Progress

The barn has been stabilized, raised and all the rot cut from the back wall and the bottoms of the remaining walls. Our fantastic electricians have been back for a quick visit to put some plugs into her pantry, plugs along the kitchen counter and lights above the sink... and last... put Sarah's kitchen perimeter lights back in now that the kitchen ceiling has finally been drywalled. The beardy boys have started forming up for the concrete walls to support the barn structure. It could be as early as Monday for pouring the concrete. Our fantastic barn raiser and excavation guy Carl and his helper Terry have laid out the posts for fencing along the North side of the property and taken out the last scary clump of broken off trees that Topher did not feel comfortable falling safely.