More Wallpaper

I have finished peeling three layers of old wallpaper off the entryway wall by the front door and 1st landing. Looking up the stairwell the wallpaper job appeared insurmountable however, by attaching two paint poles together and taping a paint scraper to the end, I was able to pull down parts of the wallpaper wayyyyyy up high in the stairwell. I believe the summer heat is helping in the scraping down of the wallpaper in the stairwell. If I can get it all down I think I will be able to get my paint roller up there and resurface that area without need of ladders or scaffold.

OK....so May's Goal Was Not Quite Met

OK... so all the walls in the three 'target' rooms are not quite finished... and it IS June, however, progress is coming along very nicely.

I had wall 'issues' in three significant spots. One spot was located in the living room to the left of this large archway at the very top of the wall in the corner. I discovered why the plaster was cracked and jutting out and kind of pooching out. It seems that one of the house's chimneys is behind this wall area and there are metal flues in the wall. Evidently there were wood burning stoves at one time, which were removed when the radiant heat was installed, and the flues were filled in with plaster and covered. Evidently, over time, the plaster has become loose and cracked in these areas in each room, thus the poochy areas.

So, I took a board and placed it over the plaster that was pooching out, gave the board a couple of whacks with the hammer to push the plaster back into place, and used some patching plaster to fill in the spaces and cracks and cement it all back safe and sound. It is now pretty even and straight and sturdy. I have one more spot to take care of in the library .... another flue issue .... and the walls will be AOK.

Wall Progress

Happily, the damask wall papers are all gone. I am offering the 'before' picture of the dining room and living room archway so that we can all better appreciate the 'after' picture of the cleaned and resurfaced plaster walls. The walls are coming along nicely and it is my goal to be finished with living room, dining room and library walls by the end of May. Keep your fingers crossed.

Ghosts in the Attic

So, last Thursday I run out to 'The Beast' and take the rest of the books from the hospital book sale and my buckets of joint compound for my walls. I've got the intentions of spending the night and doing some serious work. While I'm unloading my truck I think I hear noises upstairs but I dismiss this because I am moving boxes and I figure it was my imagination. Later, while I'm working on the walls, I hear noises again. So, doing the dumb "scarey B movie move", I slowly walk up the stairs and take my Dollar Store broom with me for protection. This is probably the part in the movie where the person investigating the creepy noise gets their head chopped off however, luckily (this time) my only discovery is a little bird. The little bird eludes me all day on Thursday. It took me several tries throughout the following day to catch the bird and send him back out a window.

On Friday, while working, I hear noises in the kitchen. I find either another bird, or the same exact bird. Evidently the little guy/gal has come down the chimney and entered the house through the hole in the chimney left by the removal of that gas/wood burning Franklin fireplace my bro-in-law yanked out for me. So, I open the back door and get the little bird back outside.

I covered up the hole in the chimney to prevent re-entry.

Since I was unfamiliar with the bird I looked them up on line when I got home and discovered they were chimney swifts. These little birds are federally protected and I guess on an endangered watch list due to them losing their chimney homes because of modern building progress. They are cute little birds and quite interesting so now I can't possibly but a cover on the chimney. I will have to allow them access in the spring/summer and just consider them "Friends of The Beast." You can read about chimney swifts here http://www.chimneyswifts.org/. If a bird has a website you have to respect it.

Lawnmower Day

I'm not real crazy about yardwork. My son cuts grass at the family home which ranks him high in the greatest son in the world contest. However, at 'The Beast'...it appears to be all up to me. So, I wrangled the lawnmower into the truck and trekked over to cut the yard today. It was the first cut of the season and overdue. The grass in the back yard was about two feet tall so it actually took me two and a half hours to get the yard in decent shape so the neighbors don't drum me out of the town. Rain over the past two days probably encouraged the grass to grow extra tall. I guess I should be thankful the front yard is full of trees and there is not much grass, but the back yard sure makes up for it. Anyway...its done for a week or so.....

Wall-ee World

I've been working on the walls in the dining room and library, and removing the layers of paint from the woodwork. The walls are turning out nicely.

There is an area of cracked plaster in the right upper corner of the doorway, which I will have to either reattach to the wood or, yank out and replaster the area. The area is only about a foot square so I shall ponder the repair for awhile. I have plenty more walls to work on before having to tackle the corner. Besides, I need the scaffold assembled in the library at the end of May for the ceiling repairs and can fix the corner when the scaffold is available in the room.


Most of the books for the library have been moved to 'The Beast'. My sister helped me lug boxes, and boxes, and boxes of 2,000 books. It took us two days. We even hauled a lot of them upstairs and put several boxes in each bedroom. I have decided to have bookcases in each room.

Ohhhhhh....BIG BOOK SALE at the Memorial Hospital annual book fair in Belleville, IL this weekend. My sister is coming for the book sale and we are going on Saturday when you can fill a paper bag full of books for $2. They supply the bags. I am printing out my revised book list and we will prepare to add to the collection on Saturday.

Last time my sister was here she carted home the collection of Janet Evanovich books (Stephanie Plum...bounty hunter series) to make sure she has read them all, and my brother in law is now reading them, too. He decided he liked them. He used to just read westerns, however my sister is easing him into some other types of fiction. I sent him my James Burke books, which I though he would like because some are set in Wyoming and the characters are pretty rough and tough.

Don't whisper a word to my nephew, but he is visiting at the end of May for his son's high school graduation, and when he is here I am going to kidnap him to 'The Beast' and have him move the refrigerator from the upstairs 'kitchen'.....to the actual kitchen downstairs. I am also going to have him haul the stove down from the 2nd floor and stick it in the alley with a 'FREE' sign on it.... and hope someone needs it. My sister is in on this plan and she is bringing the dolley for the move.

The upstairs kitchen is going to be made into a bedroom again and the appliances and kitchen paraphrenalia has to go.

Cleaning Up

It's time to get serious. Spring has arrived and the weather is gorgeous. I spent last night at The Beast and it was very comfortable even though I used the electric blanket for sleeping. I got to The Beast later in the afternoon on Saturday....around 2 p.m. I spent about 4 hours in the back yard burning sticks, leaves and tree leftovers from previous tenants and owners. The city allows for yard waste burning on the weekends so I had to take advantage. I eliminated about a third of the pile. Some of the pile turned out to be a mulchy mixture of rotten leaves and dirt so I moved that back along the stone wall and around the redbud tree. It's going to take another couple of Saturday burnings to get rid of the whole pile but all I have is time.

Later in the evening, after changing into my pjs (because I smelled like yucky smoke), I started cleaning the dining room and library walls, patching holes and slight cracks... and resurfacing. It is coming along quite well and The Beast feels so good now that the walls are beginning to look fresh and clean.



Here are some before/after pictures. I used my camera in my Eris Droid phone for the photos to experiment and gauge the quality of the images. I think they turned out quite well.

The walls are turning out nicely. I found a "tip" on some lady's DIY blog about fixing the hairline fractures in old school plaster walls and thus far her advice is working out nicely. After patching the nail holes and small chips (and large cracks) with plaster or fill in type goop... the lady suggested resurfacing the plaster walls with a mixture of joint compound and water. She showed a picture of her old walls before and after she had "painted" on the joing compound. It looked really great so I tried it and viola'. You stick a pile of joint compound in your paint pan and mix in water until the compound becomes thinner to a pudding consistency. Then, you just roll it on like paint. It gives you a nice, light texture (depending on the type of roller you use) and the compound oozes into the slight fractures and becomes one with the wall. It covers up the fractures and you have a brand new lovely surface. When working with this substance you MUST make sure the wall is totally clean. If there is any old patching plaster on the wall, the joint compound mixture will roll it off and make an uneven surface. The compound is pretty sticky but it rolls on easily and dries quickly. Depending on what shape the wall is in....you might need more than one coat before primer and paint. I have used two coats on most areas so far. Hopefully, in 6 months all the cracks won't suddenly reappear.... however, the lady I got the tip from was very enthusiastic and her walls looked fabulous.