One of the challenges that has come up during this phase of this construction project is dealing with the coved ceilings.  Coving was done in the public rooms (entry, parlors, dining room) of many American houses from 1900 up until the Second World War.  There are some post war examples (one of our bloggers here lives in just such a house) but they are few and far between.

We've already taken the plaster out and we're installing sheetrock over the lath.  The coving required some special treatment though.  We're using 1/4 inch sheetrock in the space, wetting it down and then slowly bending it into the coves.  The lath is helping to support the form and the process has gone quite well.

Because this is a preservation project, the decision to remove the plaster was something of a big deal.  Of course you make compromises when doing restorations when you add efficient lighting and upgraded electrical.  No one wants to live with 5 ungrounded outlets in a 1000 sq. ft. house.  The sheetrock was a necessary compromise here as well.  With the seismic issues and the existing damage, we needed something that would last another hundred years.  We will later be adding a finish to replicate the plaster look and I'll have some before and after pictures up soon.

Sometimes, in the course of a repair or remodel, things need to be broken in order to fix them.  I was in Minnesota recently visiting family and my cousin had an outlet that didn't work.  She'd recently had a cable line installed and she thought the cable guy had nicked it.  After some investigation, it turned out that the outlet was on a three-way switch and one of the switches had blown out while the cable guy was there.  Now, rather than repair the switch, we decided that since the TV, Tivo, etc. would be on that outlet, the fix was to bypass both of the switches and run a clean line.  On a side note, another takeaway lesson from this is that correlation is not causation.  Never assume anything when you start a repair.

On another related topic, I said last week that I was going to be working on plaster this week.  Well, the plaster is down and the sheetrock is coming today.  It's quite a thing to walk around in the house now.  Everything is wood.  We're leaving the trim in place because of it's age and only stripping the lath on the exterior walls so we can insulate.

Electrical is already there as is the plumbing, though I'm now feeling a bit bitter about the amount of time and the contortions that went into running the services without disturbing the plaster.  Oh, well.

So what are you working on these days?

After taking some time in St. Paul and Chicago, I'm back to the house full time.  Now that the lower floor is done (well, almost done), we're looking at the plaster upstairs.  When we lifted the house, the already cracking plaster became even more loose.  No large chunks have fallen, but many are a light bump away from that.  Given the condition of the plaster and our propesity towards earthquakes, we've decided to pull it and replace it with sheetrock.

Pulling the plaster itself is not such a big deal.  A few whacks with a hammer and flat shovel should loosen most of it.  The plaster runs under the trim though which is fairly brittle at 100 years old.  We've decided to leave the trim in place and remove the plaster around it. As for the lath, we'll see if it can be salvaged.  The hope is that is can be so that we'll use 1/4 inch sheetrock which goes up quickly and can be wet and bent into the coving.  If the plaster decides to be grumpy, we may end up using pieces and furring out the studs so we can still use quarter inch rock.

There will be a little dancing around replacing the outlet boxes and switch boxes while the crew demos the space, but the wires have already been dropped in the walls, so nailing up a box or two in every room should be easy.

I'll keep you all posted on this.  In te meantime, what are you working on this week?