I’m happy to report that progress is being made in the living room–slowly, but surely. Our living room is close to being ready for primer. This is due in large part to another home improvement product that is on mad’s side. Thanks to copious online research (including watching online reruns of “This Old House”) mad found Wally’s Plaster Magic (no, I didn’t made that name up). This product is designed for people with old plaster walls that have “slipped off the lath.” When this happens, your walls wiggle (which is not considered ideal). Through Wally’s multi-step process we were able to re-glue the plaster to the lath–and it worked! mad’s goal is to address things like this properly–without ripping all the character out of the house. We want to keep the sturdy, insulating, sound-proofing plaster rather than rip it down and put drywall up. Not only does it maintain the character of the house, but it is quite a bit more economical. Now that our walls don’t wiggle, we’ve been spackling and skimming with glee towards the glorious moment when we’ll be able to prime, and spirits willing, paint. mad is also trying to stick to our “one room at a time” philosophy. We quickly figured out that working through one room at a time until it’s finished is more our style–and allows us to embrace a little bit of organization in a life otherwise filled with chaos. What do we have left to do in the living room, you ask? Just a little:
- Scrape the loose paint off the ceiling and spackle
- Purchase and attach new moulding around the “fireplace”
- Prime the walls, ceilings, and mouldings
- Paint
We’ll post before and after pics when it’s done, which we’re hoping will be relatively (and I mean relatively) soon.
thank you Wally--though we think something called "magic" shouldn't require so much work