Items Found

Amongst these items there were two 45 records. One was a steel master the other was vinyl. It seems that the prior owner was a ventriloquist in the USO. He traveled from state to state via train. He recorded this record. Side A was his act with the dummy. Side B was a letter to his wife. It was kind of creepy listening to the voice of a man who once owned this house.

Curiosity

Life Lesson #2

Friends and family members had warned us of hidden problems that might appear when all the walls have been torn away to the bear studs. Load bearing walls, chimneys, asbestos....What we did not take in account was how much it was really going to cost to make these adjustments. I understand that there is no way of knowing what wall may be load bearing or that the front porch is pulling away from the house until after the demolition. We did expect some situations but not that many.

There were three situations of load bearing walls. Between the kitchen and pantry room, extending the bedroom and reinforcing the roof above the front porch. They were minor problems but it was still added cost. Our major problem was the front porch. We wanted to extend the living room area into the front porch. In order for that to happen an 11 foot microlam beam had to be installed to replace the wall that was holding up the house. Later it was discovered that the front porch was pulling away from the house. Upon further investigation the architect had noticed that there were four inch notches cut out across the 2x6 studs flooring for the plumbing to the radiators that were installed at a later date. A new foundation and sub floor had to be installed. Other complications were an outside wall had to be replaced, new ceiling with 2x6 rafters and old insulation containing asbestos. That's a whole other life lesson...

All in all I am glad that these unsafe situations were corrected unfortunately I'm paying for it.

Not so Living Room

Slats and Plaster

I googled the art of slats and plaster and this is what I found. Plaster and lath was the method craftsmen used in the early 1900s and before that to construct interior walls. Plaster was mixed by hand and spread over the lath--wooden oak slats nailed close together that held the plaster in place. Old houses were all constructed this way. Master craftsmen working on old houses used plaster and lath to construct all interior walls. Plaster walls were smooth and silky, and when cured were paintable. Plasterers were skilled craftsmen who worked long hours perfecting interior walls. Plaster and lath walls took 30 days to cure, although craftsmen advised waiting a period of a year before painting. For this reason, many homeowners chose to wallpaper their walls so as not to ruin the plaster work by painting too early.



Plastering involved placing three layers on top of the other. The first coat stuck to the oak strips and was called scratch coat, which was troweled carefully into the lath to form a bond. The second coat was called brown coat, then a finish coat was applied thickly and pressed firmly to form a half-inch wall of silky-smooth lime plaster.

Bedroom

Where's the bathroom?