family home projects work in progress

More Painting, Plus Electrical

Work on the house to get ready to sell feels like it is speeding up. During the last blog post, I left off with the red kitchen ceiling being primed by Erik. It did, indeed, need 3 coats of primer to cover that very deep red. We chose a new yellow for the walls. It’s a bright yellow that reminds me of lemons. The original yellow we used for the walls looks almost peach in…

Continue reading

family home projects work in progress

The Old & New Inside the Walls

Work continues on our dining room renovation project. Since my last post on the topic, we have taken out all the plaster and lath. In fact, that dirty job ended up being a bit bigger than we expected. Some of the lath along the south wall went behind the front wall of the closet. As Erik attempted to remove it, plaster inside the closet fell off the wall. We didn’t intend to redo the closet,…

Continue reading

family home pragmatic historian projects work in progress

The Ceiling Plaster Is Down

Posting a little late today. That’s because I spent the entire day taking plaster off the ceiling in our dining room. Whew, what a dirty job! I did not take a “before” picture (just imagine an expanse of white plaster), but here are some “after” photos. While tearing plaster off the walls was messy, it wasn’t as messy as we expected. The ceiling was another thing altogether. The dirt and debris sifting down through the…

Continue reading

family history home pragmatic historian projects

Dining Room Renovation Surprise

Only two rooms in our 1894 house still have plaster and lath walls. Soon, only one room will have plaster and lath because we are renovating the dining room. The plaster in our dining room was cracked, buckled, and coming away from the walls in a couple different areas. As we ready the house for sale, this had to be fixed. Also, the room needs insulation and new wiring. We emptied the room of furniture…

Continue reading