Dreadville Doldrums

I don't know whether to declare this blog on hiatus or not. I certainly haven't felt like writing in it.

I don't really feel as thought we've gotten anywhere in the past few months. Mostly, I sleep too late, eat erratically, and spend too much money on my revolving perfume oil collection. Hoorah, depression.

Last month we had our furnace serviced...wherein "serviced" actually turned out to mean a nearly 5-figure sum to have the whole bloody thing replaced when the old one (not serviced in years by the P.O.s; what a shock) spewed near-lethal amounts of carbon monoxide when turned on. Oh, and the water heater leaked gas.

As the additions have been demolished, we're in contact with the roofers again to have the roof replaced, tentatively scheduled for the end of December. It'll probably snow, hail, rain, and sleet to deter us, though.

There's been a mystery water leak in the kitchen ever since the heat was turned on. It seems to be getting worse and, unfortunately, the only way to access the leaky area is to dismantle/destroy/demolish our kitchen counters. Whoop-de-effing-doo.

Other news? Hmm..

M's leaf pile in the back yard has grown to gargantuan proportions. We only have three trees, so he's been raiding the neighbor's yards for leaves, up to the point of liberating the leaves from their yard waste recycle bins. We dragged down four large pallets that were for some reason in our attic to corral the leaves, though there are more than will fit.

I got bamboo shades for the front door and the dining room window and installed them. Such excitement!

I unpacked and/or stowed away the boxes that were still cluttering up the living room. It's nearly box free now, and actually looks like a living space. There's still a whacking great hole in the wall, and we're using one of those cotton tapestry throws as an area rug, but at least it isn't boxville anymore.

When It Rains In Dreadville

Looks like that whole moving-in, buying paint, and thinking we could wait a year or so before demolishing the PO's additions and replacing the near-the-end-of-its-lifespan roof thing was foolishly optimistic. This will mostly be a photo post because I'm too effing depressed and full of hatred for the POs and this squat, ugly, borked up house to bother writing much.

Addition #1 (PO's Foyer/Mudroom/2nd TV Room):


Addition #2 (PO's Family Room/Dog Room/3rd TV Room):


How PO butchered roof in order to build Addition #1:



Our dining room ceiling, leaking and bubbling (maybe more water is reaching it since we removed stuff in the attic?):


Just for fun, our flooded road (that nice-looking front lawn belongs to our neighbor, not us):

Paint! (again)

What I was basically told when M bought this house was:

• Carpets are dirty and need to be torn up


• Needs new paint


• Yard not in great shape

Now, the carpet step has been completed. It was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever done (pictorial evidence available at my Flickr page). We're down to concrete (with some remaining mastic stuck to it). Fine, okay, it still smells but it can be dealt with.

But I'd expected to paint weeks ago. We've done tons of prep - wallpaper stripping, paint stripping, sanding, patching, cleaning... But only a single room reached the point of paint -- my room which is, after a layer of primer and two layers of paint, now a pale lilac.

The master bedroom has been primed twice and is ready for paint...but we were forced to move in before the house was ready, so now it's filled with furniture. At some point, when I'm capable of lifting anything (I hurt my back painting the ceiling in my room!), I'll move the furniture and paint.

The hallways, foyer, and living room were thought to be ready for painting, but the hallway has proved that this was a wishful, unrealistic thought. The layers of paint we stripped were latex. Underneath that is a more stubborn, flaky-not-peely paint. I don't know if it's an old oil-based paint, or if it's some kind of plaster specific coat. We thought it was sanded to the point that we could paint over it, but the unevenness is very, very obvious even through two coats of primer.

Apparently it's common practice in England to put up something called lining paper when painting over plaster that's previously been painted or wallpapered, but I haven't seen anything of the kind here. It would make a smooth surface, I suppose, but the idea seems kind of counterintuitive to me.

The other option is to get some kind of chemical paint stripper (I'm looking at Peel Away Smart Strip as a relatively non-toxic option) but the price, given the area we'd need it for, is daunting. Not quite as daunting as stripping yet another layer of paint off all of those walls again, though...

Plaster! (again)

Yesterday's disheartening moment came during the project of removing the faux popcorn ceiling in the kitchen.

It did have to go -- the PO applied it badly. It looked like uneven cake icing, with great peaks and waves along all the edges in much greater quantity than that which graced the rest of the ceiling.

I know, I knew, that this spray-on popcorn is generally used to hide some greater flaw. I did not expect this 'flaw' to be a poorly repaired four foot hole in the ceiling and crumbling plaster walls above the stove.

The project was eased, for the most part, by the fact that rather than scraping all the icing off I was able instead to just peel the thick layer of paint underneath it off, the icing coming with it. But then I reached the Hole. My scraper met resistance. There was no paint underneath this section of icing. There was...drywall?

I gave up on that section for the time being, as I couldn't scrape the icing without scraping the drywall as well.

I started on the lower sections of ceiling, also popcorned, over the fridge, sink and stove. I ran into trouble when the top coat of the plaster began peeling off along with the paint. Over the stove, the top coat simply shattered and fell off at the touch. So there's a four to six foot section of upper wall/ceiling that either has no finish coating or has finish coating in imminent danger of falling off. The brown layer of plaster is worryingly crumbly/fragile to the touch, there are cracks in it, and there's a distinctive brown/rust stain that looks like the mesh layer inside the plaster. Water damage, yes? That would explain the repaired hole in the ceiling, too (although it would have to be a LOT of water).

So much for painting the kitchen anytime soon.



Apparently, plasterers are rare and expensive these days. I really dislike the 'hide it with drywall' idea. I want to have the plaster fixed, not hidden. I don't feel capable of doing this myself, though I'm sure that's the most cost effective way. I'm not sure how much of the brown coat would have to be knocked out to make the repair... Presumably the cabinet would have to be removed, too. augh. (And the tile above the stove? And the hood fan??)