Patching Plaster....Durabond

After reading every possible technique for patching plaster, I have determined that there is NO consensus on how to do it right. Use mesh tape for cracks? Fiberglass tape? Paper tape or no tape at all? Plaster of Paris mixed with lime putty? Joint compound? Premixed? Or hot mud?

I decided to go with no tape, and to use Durabond 90 to fill the cracks, and then top with EasySand 45. I chose high numbers (drying time) to give myself plenty of time, and decided to start in the closet so if it turns out terrible, who cares!

Our farmhouse is filled with cracks and pitted walls...and they say the cracks will always be there but I wanted to do my best to prep the walls before painting, so here we go!

Beth and I tackled a coat of Durabond today, I'll post progress photos tomorrow!

2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back

As I said, we are living and learning. The wallboard on the ceiling in the kitchen was just not working. On the advice of Travis, the entire ceiling has been torn down - on Monday Matt and Travis will re-insulate the ceiling and put wallboard up so that it's all uniform. Matt's on vacation this week, but this ceiling was not what he was hoping to work on. That's okay, we keep saying, the interruptions and surprises and constant projects are what this house is all about for us. :)

In bathroom news (the news I'm always most invested in because when that is complete we can MOVE IN), yesterday Matt and I got some stuff done. He extended the bathroom wall up to the ceiling, and then put up a type of wallboard that is mold and mildew resistant and meant for shower walls. It was interesting to watch him make the measurements and cut holes where he hoped the faucet and handle would go and voila, it fit perfectly! Then he drilled it into the frame. It's nearly ready to be tiled!

First though, they will drill up through the new frame into the ceiling and snake some wiring in there for a shower light and fan. I ordered the tile a few days ago - I'm a little nervous about what I chose, but I'm going with my gut that it will turn out to look cool in the end!

We keep haunting craigslist for a vanity that will work temporarily - we are looking for a 2 bowl 60 inch vanity. We'd just like to put off spending a lot right now on it, so want something we can just throw in there until we save up for a nice one. I found one for $45 and reached out to the owner, but they posted it a month ago so I'm sure it's gone! That's a pretty amazing price, wouldn't that be great if they still had it?? We will see.

Photos Catch-up

Well we moved! Into Matt's parents' basement apartment where we are very comfortable but also longing to be in our new home! Our requirements are a working toilet and shower, even if the rest of the house is a construction mess. But first we need a bathroom floor (ceramic tile, installed by Matt), and lights/fan in the bathroom. We've even determined that we can do without a bathroom vanity for now - hey we have a kitchen sink! The vanities we like are around $1,000, so we'd like to reserve our cash for the priority of getting the house siding fixed and painted.

Backing way up because I can't seem to keep up with the blog, here is Matt doing the awful job of pulling up this VCT tile in what we are calling "Michael's room" (since Michael just bought a house, it's highly improbable that he'll ever live here, but still, he has a room:

He did the same thing in the hallway - the original tile is the checkerboard near Michael's bedroom door:

I've been working on Kara and Beth's room, scraping wallpaper (that has been painted) - all of the wallpaper is now gone! It sort of looks worse than before, but here and in the master bath I will be learning how to patch and skim-coat plaster:

The purple is "before" - you can see the wallpaper peeking through to the left of the double windows:

The other room where I've been scraping is the Master Bath - I'm not quite done here, but I moved upstairs to the girls' room because Matt decided to tear down the ceiling in the kitchen and there was way too much dust down there!

Here's the green painted wallpaper coming down:

 Here you can see the shower being built! Since this photo, we've decided that that wall Matt built is going to have to extend to the ceiling in order to put in electrical for the shower fan/light. Living and learning!

A "finished" wall - ready to be patched and painted! That window will be an exterior door:

I bet this wallpaper was really cute - it's what was hiding under the paint, but it has to go:

So the ceiling in the kitchen/addition was lower than the original ceiling. Matt decided to knock it down and put up new wallboard to match the ceiling heights so that it is uniform all the way across. What a mess!

This is Matt's friend Charlie helping to tear down the ceiling:

The old insulation was knee deep in the kitchen:

The new wallboard is up on the ceiling now (that's Trevor who put the wallboard up in the half-bath you can see here, and also the ceiling), except part of it is sagging in the middle. Matt and Travis have decided to climb up in the ceiling and bolster the middle with 2x6's and bolt them to the rafters (I probably have the details wrong), something Travis says, "Would have been good to do before you put that wallboard up," but we are just figuring things out as we go, so apparently we like to do it the hard way, haha.  

Travis is painting those boards above and fixing the fascia and soffits on the outside of the house (the area right under the lip of the roof) so that gutters can be installed. He is painting them white with Kilz, and it's making us excited to have the whole house white when it's finally painted! Here he is working on the fascia:

That's all for now!