All Washed Up

This morning I finished the last bit of washing up to be done on the Accordion Room, and now we are in plaster-repair mode for a while. Here we are all washed and ready to go (can you believe that's a North window in the winter? It was a really nice day out today).

Man, that was a tedious job. Some parts scraped really nicely and hardly needed any scrubbing, but others would not scrape off at all and needed really vigourous scrubbing to come clean. And wow, do your arms get tired of working hard above your head. I'm just saying.

This week will be all about making cosmetic repairs to the plaster and stabilizing the large parts of it that are entirely loose. Most of the holes are obviously from hanging pictures on the walls, like these (and that large crack from an earthquake past, but those are actually not as bad as they look).

Other holes are the result of the lost plaster keys, which ought to hold the plaster on the wall. In much of the house the keys have been broken off, and the Accordion Room is no exception. When that happens the plaster gets very loose and any impact causes big holes, like this one, characterized by bulging out from the lath and just sort of falling apart when you examine it. Those require a lot of careful building up to repair without causing a really really huge hole.

Other tasks include fixing some electrical problems in the room, including the minor issue with this light switch. Because I can be very accommodating of weirdness, but not of outright dangerousness.

We aim to be able to prime and paint the walls next weekend, so I can work on stripping the flooring next week. Will we make it? Given our track record, probably not, but we'll sure try.

Technorati Tags: electrical work, plaster, renovations

posted by ayse on 01/13/08