Back at it

Repaired ceiling. I'm actually getting good at this. Note the
missing molding. 

With the holidays fully behind us, I have little excuse left to keep from diving back into some open projects at the house. Back in the Fall, I started after the upstairs hallway, tearing off the awful molding and some of the fixtures. It remained in that condition through Christmas, and Cindy has been beyond patient with the mess and I really need to get going on that work. First step was to repair the damaged ceiling. There were holes where the multiple smoke detectors and light fixtures hung, and where the cheap molding was attached. Next is  the big job of repairing the plaster wall that has become detached from the lathe backing. I researched the process months ago and had already purchased the needed supplies.

Holes drilled, but wall still bulging out.

I fixed the ceiling pretty quickly and decided I could no longer put off the wall repair. The first step is to drill multiple holes through the plaster in which to pump the construction adhesive. Then, you use drywall screws with big washers to pull the plaster back to the lathe, hoping that the construction adhesive bonds the two back together. This step actually went pretty well, and I pumped damn near an entire tube of adhesive into the wall. Very little oozed back out so it went somewhere, hopefully where it was needed. The drywall screws grabbed the lathe easily.

Drywall screws holding the plaster in place.

After 24 hours, you must remove the screws and hope that the plaster remains attached to the wall. Surprisingly, that's pretty much what happened. The good news is that the plaster is not longer moving back and forth in place, the bad news is that the result is an ugly mess. Some of the plaster chiped, then there are the places where a bit of the construction adhesive sticks to the washers and pulls away the plaster and paint when you remove them. So, the next step is to fill the holes and cracks with a joint compound then I will probably have to (horrors!) skim that entire wall. I've never skimmed a wall, and I'm not looking forward to it, but it is the best way to smooth out an uneven wall surface, and will look best when painted. The results of that will be in an upcoming blog.

The repaired wall. Really. Hole fix and skimming comes next.

Otherwise I did some finishing work in the bathroom. I replaced the old, industrial light fixture in the bathroom ceiling with a new, LED fixture. Of course, the previous installation did not properly install the junction box. It is just "floating" in place above the ceiling, held only by the wiring. The proper way to fix this is to go into the attic and secure the fixture to an attic floor joist. This involves moving our boxed Christmas decorations and removing the attic floor. An "easier" way would be to attach the junction box to a nearby joist, by accessing it through the hole in the bathroom ceiling. but it looks like there is nothing readily available. So, when the weather warms up, attic here I come. Of course, there is blown in insulation between the attic floor and ceiling below so that stuff will get everywhere.

In the world of upstate weather, after a brutally cold stretch in the end of December into January, the end of January and the beginning of February has been fairly benign. Not all that cold and still relatively snow free. I had been thinking that February would turn cold again, but it's been near normal so far, with a real thaw expected in the next week. I still think this winter has another brutal cold stretch in it, and I'm afraid that may mean March now, right when we are rightfully tired of winter and ready for Spring. Good news is that I understand the maple trees are being tapped and sap has begun to run. The first delicious product of Spring cannot be far away!