Weekend #3 - April 9-11

After completing removal of the wallpaper off the walls, it was time to move to the ceilings.  I've searched high and low for the reasons behind why they put wallpaper on the ceiling.  I had all kinds of theories - I was certain it was hard to paint before rollers were invented.  I thought maybe it masked the dust and smoke that might be produced from a coal stove or other early forms of heating for homes.  I also considered it could be replaced when it got too dirty....

After everything I've read about wallpaper on the ceiling, it turns out it was merely a fifth wall for decoration.  Early wallpaper ceilings depicted elaborate scenes like meadows or angels singing in the clouds.  Wallpaper design gradually transitioned into more patterned prints or medallion-type designs with ornate details.  By the early 1900's when this house was built, the Classical Craftsman style had become the style of choice in American homes.  This style was practical and promoted clean lines and a move away from the ornate and sometimes gaudy details of the Victorian Era houses.  There were certainly some patterned wallpapers on the ceilings in the Myrtle House, but the last few layers were all white...and of course, they had been painted over.

I had to work at Ballad on Saturday morning, so I drove up on Friday and my Dad and I started working on the ceilings in the backroom and the dining room.  The dining room ceilings had the most stick (read: the hardest to remove).  We worked for a couple of hours until we were both sweaty and exhausted.  It didn't feel like we accomplished much.  

Lesson #3:  Sometimes progress is slow.  

Saturday was a day off!  Scott's Dad turned 70 years old on April 7th, so we spent the day with the Orsburn family celebrating his birthday.  

On Sunday, the work crew of Scott, Carla, Brody and Gaven returned.  We had three tasks:  prime the walls in the backroom for skim coating, work on removing the wallpaper from the ceilings and try out some ceiling repair in the backroom.

One of the hardest issues with the plaster and lath system is the weight of dried plaster.  The dried keys in the lath can crack and break, which allows the weight of the plaster to crack or sag in some areas.  The lath in the ceiling in the backroom clearly had some broken keys and cracks.  The plaster had started to lag in some areas.  We wanted to try to pull the ceiling back up into place rather than replacing it with sheetrock.  Scott did some research about repairing plaster ceilings and discovered magical plaster buttons.  These little 'buttons' are screwed into the problem areas and sort of 'button' the plaster back into the lath.  Plaster buttons can be used anywhere, but we have only used them on the ceilings in the Myrtle House.  

I didn't take a picture of the ceiling after all the plaster buttons had been put in.  (Refer to Lesson #1).  It made a huge difference though.  I would estimate in some placed, the buttons pulled the ceiling up an inch or more.  As of the time I am writing this post, the ceiling in the backroom is finished and it is flat and perfect.  The plaster buttons definitely did their job.  

Brody and Gaven worked on taking wallpaper off the ceilings in the dining room.  You can see the evidence of the patterned wallpaper above their heads in the picture below.  I will say, my Mamaw would have enjoyed this weekend.  Brody and Gaven had the radio turned up and were hosting a sing-a-long while they worked.  I caught glimpse of them singing Zac Brown's "Knee Deep" while working over their heads scraping wallpaper.  I could just envision Mamaw sitting in the dining room watching Brody and Gaven work with her styrofoam cup of black coffee or cold Coca-Cola singing along. She always loved to sing and it was even better if she had a group to sing with. 💖    

The advantage of only working on the house on the weekend is I have all week to research things before we jump in.  I looked up all sorts of videos on "how to skim coat plaster walls".  I was nervous about this part of the project.  I've never done anything like this before and I really did not want to mess it up.  As any good student would, I took notes and watched the videos more than once.  I emailed them to Scott so he could watch them too.  Here is the snippet of my email to Scott:

"Just some videos I watched in preparation for moving into the chapter 2 of our reno.

See Jane Drill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mob1K_P_L8U

 

This fella has an English accent and background music.  The comments on this video are pretty funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey0Xj9Xe2xg

 

This is a video for repair of holes in plaster.  These walls look like ours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4oI2SsOAC4"

And my notes:

Since my You Tube tutorials told me to paint the walls with PVA primer, that's exactly what I did.  It was watered down, so it was very runny and messy.  We only worked in the backroom - because by this time, the backroom had become our trial room for all new skills.  

After the walls were primed, we mixed up some joint compound - written as "plaster" in my notes.  We worked together to skim coat the wall to the right in the picture above.  We worked and worked at that wall.  

The compound was difficult to get used to.  I had to learn to manage a hock full of wet joint compound and trowel.  I knew it was going to be a learning experience and I tried hard to keep that mindset on that first room.  I am so disappointed I didn't take any pictures of our first wall.  Goodness, it was rough.  I am happy to report we improved significantly by the time we got to the next room.  😊

I also began the task of cleaning out the basement.  I haven't taken any pictures from the basement yet, but I remember it as being a very scary place as a child.  NO ONE went down to the basement.  It was dark and dirty.  There was sure to be monsters or something vile down there.  There is a reason my family did not clean it out before they sold it to us.  😂  The following is the text I sent to my mom, Robin, and Lynn describing our adventures from the weekend:

"I'd like to thank Karen and Robin for leaving the basement clean out for the new owners.  Before I knew it, I had grabbed a dead mouse (I think, maybe it was a small rat?) by the tail.  It was stiff as a board, under a rusty paint can.  Shout out to Mamaw for just throwing a whole box (unopened) of rodent poison under the stairs to the basement.  I'm pretty sure I would have chosen the same delivery method.  Haha! There is an entire box of cleaning supplies down there.  I didn't do anything with that, but they appear to be vintage cleaning supplies, based on the bottle labels.  I will go back down next weekend."  

Little did I know, the adventures in the basement were just beginning.  

That wraps up the abbreviated Weekend #3.  

This week's post included references from the following websites:

The history of wallpaper:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/the-deception-of-wallpaper/476295/

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/tpsd/wallpaper/sec2a.htm

https://www.oldhouseonline.com/interiors-and-decor/decorated-ceiling/

Plaster Buttons:

https://www.oldtownhome.com/2012/4/17/Toolbox-Tuesday-Plaster-Buttons-to-Fix-Your-Crumbling-Ceiling