Rockstar

My husband moved a ton of rocks this weekend. That's not an exaggeration or a figure of speech: he literally moved 2,000+ pounds of rocks, stones, and slate into our backyard this weekend. We now have a slate patio and a meandering path in the yard. Let's jump to the good stuff, and then I'll backtrack and tell you about our process.

Here is what the yard looks like now:

 

Now for all the gritty details:

After a summer of tedious tasks like stripping paint and patching plaster, we were feeling frustrated about the lack of visual improvement to our house. For the sake of our emotional health, we decided we needed a "quick win": a project that would boost the appearance of our home and provide us with a satisfying sense of accomplishment without requiring an enormous investment of time or money. In other words, we needed a project like those featured on HGTV, where a room/house/yard is completely transformed in a mere 72 hours.

Since we bought this house, we've talked about installing two patios in the backyard. Our backyard has two sections: an upper level near the house, with walkways and a small patch of grass. Right now, this is where we keep our barbecue, saw horses, and some construction materials. It's not a particularly pretty space. We'd eventually like to have a large patio up here.

Our yard also has a much larger lower level; it's reachable either by a short flight of stairs or by walking down our gravel driveway. We also envisioned a small patio in this lower level. When we moved in, this was just an enormous patch of grass. About a year ago, my husband S created a vegetable garden with raised beds. He also created a diamond dust path from the driveway to the garden. Since then, he's slowly been planting perennials and natives to make our yard a haven for all sorts of critters.

Backyard, Fall 2015. Looking towards house.

Backyard, Fall 2015

We hadn't planned to do any major work in the yard this year, since we have so many unfinished projects. But over the summer, my husband and father-in-law installed a slate patio in the backyard of his childhood home. My inlaws had quite a bit of surplus material, and generously offered it to us. They even offered to drive the slate to our house. Our largest car is a Honda Civic, so we especially appreciated their offer to help with transportation. Suddenly, the patio project seemed like it could be our "quick win." With the donated slate already in hand, we would just need to purchase diamond dust and any other decorative rocks we wanted. The cost of the project would be relatively minimal.

Thanks to a fair amount of planning, this project came together over the course of four long, sweaty non-consecutive days.

Day 1 (Saturday):

This first day is spent mapping out the patio and prepping the ground. As I mentioned earlier, we'd eventually like to have two patios: one on the upper level near the house, and a smaller one on the lower level. We decide to start with the smaller patio, based on the amount of slate we have. S charts out a 10'x10' square between the oak tree and the dogwood. Our goal is to create a patio large enough to accommodate some outdoor furniture (either a dining set or a lounge set), without significantly decreasing the amount of grass. We also talk about creating some paths: one from the stairs to the patio, and another towards the side of the yard.

Our backyard slopes away from our house at a pretty steep grade. This is great from a drainage perspective. However, it's a challenge when you need to create a flat surface. Most of day 1 is spent creating a level space for the patio. S ends up creating a 4-6" berm and filling in the 10'x10' space with dirt to create a smooth surface.

Day 2 (the following Friday):
S has taken a vacation day to work on the patio project. I'm feeling pretty grateful: not a lot of people would be excited to spend a vacation day pushing around rocks, but he is. As I leave for the office, the local quarry delivers three yards of diamond dust. This will be used under the slate tiles and in the walkways. All the diamond dust will eventually make its way down the driveway, then back up the yard towards the patio area.  Here is a visual of the long journey that S and that diamond dust will take together, over and over again:

While I'm at work, I get a text from S. He wants to know what type of rocks should go around the edge of the patio. We agree on pond stone, as well as some larger rocks mixed in for texture and visual interest. At lunch, I go outside and snap a picture to send to S. These are the larger rocks I'd like to see interspersed with the pond stone. They are apparently called river jacks.

This picture feels like such a fashion blogger cliche...

I return to our house 11 hours later, and the yard has been transformed. More than half of the patio is complete and both paths are in progress. I'm so thrilled that I forget to take a picture.

Day 3 (Saturday):
S continues laying the slate tiles on the remaining portion of the patio. I'm now able to witness how labor intensive this process is. Much of the day involves tamping the diamond dust before installing the slate to ensure the surface is as level as possible. Several times, I catch S lying face down on the ground, trying to get a good read on the level (or perhaps he is taking a much-needed break...I can't be quite sure). He also continues filling in the pathways with diamond dust, and tamping those as well.

I have a dentist appointment first thing in the morning, so I'm out of the house for three hours. My dentist is 40 miles away, and this is one of those times when I'm kicking myself for not finding a local dentist after we moved here. Apparently, I'm too lazy to research a new dentist, but not too lazy to drive an hour for a dental cleaning. It figures.

When I'm back home, S is putting pond stone and river jacks (those larger ones I requested) around the edges of the patio. Based on our bank account activity, I now know that S went to Lowe's six times on Saturday. He also went to the garden center three times. We needed a ton of rocks for this project, and you can only load so much into a small car. Luckily, we live close to both stores. But now there are even more rocks that need to be moved from the driveway to the yard. I help by moving 50 lbs of pond stone. S suggests that I leave this part to him; apparently I am lifting with my back and it concerns him.

Here is the part where I totally pull my weight: I leave for another three hours for a riding lesson. If you are thinking that I sound like a prissy princess, I can't say I blame you. La-di-da. My husband is moving rocks to build a patio. All by himself. I'll just go off and ride some horses. Isn't this a relaxing weekend?

For the sake of clarity, I should explain that the riding lessons are an occasional thing. This is only the third time I've ever ridden, and I'm very much a beginner. I received a package of lessons as a gift from S (as if you needed any more evidence that he's a wonderful husband). The lessons were not cheap, so I want to be sure I use all my lessons before they expire at the end of October. I'd love to continue riding in the future, but I'm not sure whether that will be possible. It's quite a commitment, both of time and money. By the way, if you'd like to see a picture of me riding, feel free to check out my Instagram account.

On my way home from the stables, I stop at an orchard to pick up S's favorite variety of apples, as well as some hard cider and some cider donuts. If there is ever a day when he should feel free to indulge in comfort food, it's today. Back at the house, I trim back some of the dying plants and rake the leaves from the front yard. Then I head inside to straighten up the kitchen and start dinner. Tonight, we're having margherita pizza (for homemade dough, I like this recipe from Smitten Kitchen). If I'm not helping with the manual labor, the least I can do is to prep something tasty and filling for us to eat. 

At the end of day 3, the yard looks like this:

Day 4 (Sunday): 
A pallet of fieldstone arrives from the garden center. Our neighbors must think we're planning to build a wall. My father-in-law also stops by. He and S have plans for a few hours in the morning. While they are gone, I paint window sashes in our basement workshop and do some laundry. When S returns, he moves the fieldstone, arranging it along the edges of the patio and paths. He also uses it to create a boundary between our grass and the mulched flower beds. This, along with more tamping, takes most of the day. I run errands and make another filling dinner: kale caeser salad and roasted butternut squash soup with bacon.

 

We have a few odds and ends to finish up before we'll call this project complete. Next spring, we will add some furniture to the patio so that it is fully functional (the adirondack is just there temporarily to show scale). But this project has definitely satisfied our need for a "quick win." Feel free to tell my husband he's a rockstar. I'm probably biased, but I tend to agree. 

 

 

The Tortoise Wins, Right?

Sometimes I think that I should have chosen a different name for this blog. The Papered House is fine, as far as names go. It's accurate and descriptive: it's true that our house was completely covered in vintage wallpaper when we moved in. It's also true that I spend far too much time and energy thinking about what type of wallpaper I'd like to install when we're at that stage of the DIY process.

To say that I'm a wallpaper nerd is an understatement. Case in point: for my birthday last year, my husband S bought me a 300-page book on the history of wallpaper. It was shipped from the UK, because no copies were available within the US. I've been known to exceed our cell phone data plan while browsing William Morris and Sanderson wallpaper designs. If I ever win the lottery, my first purchase will be hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper murals for our dining room (actually that's a lie. First I will order orchestra section tickets to Hamilton. And then, I will buy de Gournay).

Although I wasn't clever enough to remember the more common meaning of a "papered house" when I selected the blog name, now I take perverse pleasure in imagining some 19th century rascals dressed like the cast of Newsies covering our Victorian house with toilet paper. I know that's a highly improbable scenario. In all likelihood, the primitive toilet paper available during the late 1800s would have been expensive enough to prevent frivolous use. But reality aside, imagining this scenario gives me the giggles nonetheless.

Anyway, The Papered House works fine as a blog name. But if I had known then what I know now, I might have named this blog The Tortoise House. You would then know to expect verrrrry sloooooow progress from us. I'm a big fan of managing expectations.

This is how I often feel about the pace of our DIY projects:

We sometimes feel like we're spinning our wheels with this house, and it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have learned that instant gratification is not compatible with rehabbing an old home. When I'm feeling frustrated with the pace of our rehab, occasionally I'll give myself permission to take the night off and relax after work with a glass of wine. But more often, I tell myself, "this house isn't going to fix itself." That saying is a constant mantra in this household, and it's usually enough to kick myself into gear and get back to the task at hand.

Since I last posted (in June), we've made progress on several big projects. Actually, I should say that my husband S has made progress on these projects. As much as I hate to admit that he does the heavy labor, it's true. I'm in charge of painting, cleaning, and otherwise containing the chaos that comes with having an open project in nearly every room. In the past few months, "we" have installed new electric for five of the seven overhead lights on the first floor. The overhead lights in the kitchen and back porch still need new wiring, and then we'll be ready for inspection. Since we were already drilling holes into the plaster in order to install the new wiring, we decided it would be a good time to repaired cracked plaster ceilings along the way. So far, the ceilings in the dining room and front hall have been repaired (though I still need to sand, which tops the list of my least favorite projects). In between those projects, we have also continued to chip away at other tedious, time-intensive projects on our list, like stripping and repainting all the original molding and restoring our windows.

Unfortunately, this summer we also encountered several house-related setbacks. I had a long, protracted post written about those frustrations, but I'll save that for a different post. Spoiler alert: it involves a slate roof, leaky pipes, an old HVAC system, and structural concerns about our porch. I think it's important to be transparent about the challenges of owning and rehabbing an old home, so I'll publish that post at some point. But today is not that day.

I'm determined that this post will be about the things that are going well at The Papered House. Like the family room! Our family room is coming together quite nicely. Our goal for this room is to give it an Arts and Crafts/Mission-style aesthetic, while still coordinating with the rest of our decor. We aren't done yet, but here are a few shots of what the family room looks like today:

As of my June post, we had checked off the first six steps in rehabbing the family room, including:

1. Install two new outlets. Run new wiring to overhead light (will be active after inspection)
2. Remove all the baseboard, window casings and door casing
3. Purchase, cut, prime, and install new window and door casings. Patch nail heads and caulk if needed
4. Repair plaster using Big Wally's Plaster Magic. Patch and sand walls after repair
5. Prime two walls (other two walls will have existing wallpaper)
6. Paint two walls (other two walls will have existing wallpaper)


In the past three months, we checked off the next six steps on our family room project, including the following: 

7. Paint new molding
8. Repair ceiling plaster. Patch and sand ceiling after repair
9. Prime ceiling
10. Paint ceiling
11. Restore three windows (strip paint on sash, channel, and sill; apply new glazing; install new weatherstripping, sash cords, and new parting bead; prime and paint sash, channel, and sill)
12. Install wallpaper border to coordinate with existing wallpaper and wall color

When we moved into this house, there was crown molding in this room. Like the existing baseboards, window casings and door casings in this room, it was clearly not original. However, all the woodwork was covered in chipping paint that was beyond repair, so it had to be removed. Rather than installing new crown molding, we decided to hang a wallpaper border from Bradbury & Bradbury. We used the "Aster Border" in Aesthetic Green from Bradbury's William Morris Woodland Roomset. We couldn't be happier with how it complements our existing wallpaper and the color on the walls (Craftsman Gold at 70% intensity from California Paints).

These pictures also show the detail of the new Craftsman-style trim that we installed around our doors and windows. We're so happy with the new trim. This was a design that my husband S created after researching and speaking with an Arts and Crafts expert. He spent a lot of time down in the basement using the saw to cut this molding, but it was totally worth it (says the lady who has only used the saw once in her entire life).

The antique swing-arm curtain rods were an eBay purchase. We have very similar ones in our bedroom (those can be seen here); we like the style, and the price was right. For the three sets in our family room, we paid just $60 including shipping. There is a downside to buying antique hardware: several of the brackets are a bit cock-eyed and bent, which causes the rods to be out of alignment. We might tinker with them in the future to see if we can get the curtain rods to appear more level. For now, they are fine. The curtains are a sheer linen fabric with embroidered medallions. They previously hung in one of our guest bedrooms, and were a last minute purchase at HomeGoods when we were hosting houseguests. Initially, I just hung them in the family room as placeholders, thinking they might be too modern for the family room. But now that they are there, I like them. S pointed out that the medallions on the curtains are similar to the medallions on the wallpaper. He's right. 

We still have a few tasks remaining in the family room. Some of these tasks are small, like hanging artwork. Other tasks, such as stripping and repainting the doors, will take more time. We've decided to hold off until stripping the doors until winter. There are five(!) doors in this room and we need to make some space in the basement workshop to strip them safely. We've also decided to prioritize some of the more time-sensitive tasks before winter sets in.

This weekend, we are tackling a number of exterior projects. It's also time for us to decorate for Halloween! In the meantime, I'll leave you with a creepy picture of our family room just after dawn. Tell me this does not look like the promo poster of a horror movie.

-The Papered House dares you to pull a Halloween prank. Go ahead, try it.

Family Room Update: A Slow, Dusty Road

When I last showed pictures of our family room, it had a split personality. From one angle, the room looked fairly decent. We had a comfy couch, a handmade coffee table, and an antique Stickley Mission-style chair. I dare say our family room almost looked inviting in these pictures.

But from a different angle? It looked like a completely different room. Two of our family room walls looked like they fell victim to the exuberance of the KoolAid guy (oh, yeah!):

In mid-April, my husband and I decided to tackle the family room in earnest. We relocated most of the furniture to elsewhere in the house, and started the long, dusty task of rehabbing this room. I've mentioned previously that we love the wallpaper in this room. We're not sure how old the paper is, but we suspect that it may be handprinted because of slight variations in the color. When we moved into the house, the same wallpaper was on all four walls in the family room. However, the paper on two of the walls was peeling so badly that it was beyond saving. We removed the wallpaper from the walls where it was peeling, but decided to preserve the wallpaper on the other two walls. After removing the damaged wallpaper, we decided to paint those two walls in a color that would complement the paper.

 

The color we chose is called Craftsman Gold and it's from the 20th-Century Collection by California Paints. It's a very rich, intense goldenrod hue that looks striking next to the white woodwork.  

We are aiming for an Arts and Crafts aesthetic in this room since it seems consistent with the earthy colors in the wallpaper. The Arts and Crafts style will come mostly from the decor, as well as our new molding. Our normal preference is to preserve the existing molding whenever possible. However, the existing molding in this room was not original and it was quite plain, so we did not feel guilty when we made the decision to replace it. In addition, the door casings, window casings, and baseboards were covered in layers of chipping, peeling paint. If this molding had been original, we would have considered stripping it of the paint. But that's a time-consuming, laborious process that we didn't think was worthwhile for plain, non-original molding. We'll also install new crown molding since the existing has the same problem of badly chipping paint. The new door casings, window casings, and baseboards consist of pine 1x4s that are edge-trimmed with a 1.25" strip of pine, creating a dimensional profile. My husband S developed the design after looking at catalogs from the Arts and Crafts period and consulting with an antique dealer who specializes in Arts and Crafts decor. This was a fairly simple profile, but even so, he spent hours in the basement cutting the new molding.

Craftsman-style baseboard

Craftsman-style door casing

One of the largest projects in this room is updating the electrical work. This room only had one outlet when we moved in. The lack of outlets hasn't been much of a problem thus far because we're a bit old school in our electronics usage. But even so, we'd like to have more than one outlet in the room that will be our primary entertainment space. New wiring also needs to be run to the overhead light in this room (and in fact, to all the overhead lights on our first floor -- but that's a story for another time). I'm very grateful that this is a task we'll be doing ourselves. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. I'm not doing any of the electric work, other than  occasionally helping S fish wires through our plaster walls and calling out "How's it going? Can you see/hear/reach the wire yet?" But I am very grateful that S will be doing the electric work with guidance from his father, who has extensive electrical experience. We applied for and received a permit to do this work, and S spent a lot of time researching the code regulations. It's fortunate that we don't need to hire a professional for this project, because I am sure it would be a budget buster. Even so, I'm not looking forward to the inspection process.

New outlet in family room

New wiring for ceiling fixture

Significant plaster repair has been needed on both the walls and the ceiling since we bought this house. We created additional damage to the plaster when installing the new molding and fixing the electric. These walls will never be perfect, but considering the severity of the cracks, we are pleased with how our plaster repair turned out. This is what the wall looks like after using Big Wally's Plaster Magic, and about 12 thin layers of spackle. Not pictured: the piles of dust we vacuumed up with the shop vac. It was unbelievable.

And this is what that wall used to look like:

 

Other major projects include fully restoring the windows in this room, and stripping/repainting the doors. There are five (yes, 5!!!) doors in this room alone, and two of them are French doors.

Since the middle of April, we have been diligently working away on this room and chipping away at our task list. Initially, I planned to post updates frequently, in an attempt to depict our real-time progress. But it's tricky for me to find the energy to rehab a house in the evenings, and then maintain the momentum to blog about the process as well.

Here is an update of the progress from the past two months:

1. Install two new outlets. Run new wiring to overhead light - DONE
2. Remove all the baseboard, window casings and door casing - DONE
3. Purchase, cut, prime, and install new window and door casings. Patch nail heads and caulk if needed - DONE
4. Repair plaster using Big Wally's Plaster Magic. Patch and sand walls after repair - DONE
5. Prime two walls - DONE
6. Paint two walls - DONE
7. Paint new molding - IN PROGRESS
8. Repair ceiling plaster. Patch and sand ceiling after repair - IN PROGRESS
9. Prime ceiling: Status - NOT DONE
10. Paint ceiling. Status - NOT DONE
11. Restore three windows (strip paint on sash, channel, and sill; apply new glazing; install new weatherstripping, sash cords, and new parting bead; prime and paint sash, channel, and sill) - IN PROGRESS
12. Install and paint new crown molding - NOT DONE
13. Install quarter round molding - NOT DONE
14. Strip, paint, and rehang five doors. Status: NOT DONE
15. Purchase new Mission-style ceiling light fixture, curtains, and media stand: NOT DONE

Once we finish the first 12 of those 15 tasks, we'll be far enough along in this project to move the furniture back into the family room. That will be a very exciting day. At the moment, our entire first floor feels chaotic and cluttered since all the family room furniture has been shoved into the dining room and living room. We still have several tasks ahead of us in this room, but we're pleased with the direction so far.

Thank you for reading, folks! This week my goal is to finish painting the molding. I've learned that it's a challenge to paint the woodwork without accidentally painting the vintage wallpaper at the same time, especially since the wallpaper is too brittle for painter's tape to be an option. Slow and steady is the name of the game...

Progress in the Upstairs Hallway

Since we moved into The Papered House, our upstairs hallway has been in rough shape. I didn't take a "before" photo, but I'll try to describe what we were working with: The baseboards, crown molding, and door casings were covered in multiple layers of chipping paint. The floors were covered in a beige-colored carpet. The carpet must have been beautiful and plush when it was installed over twenty years ago. However, our house's only bathroom is on the second floor, at the end of the hall. As a result, this area has gotten a lot of foot traffic over the years, and the carpet had definitely seen better days. A previous owner had removed wallpaper and applied a coat of primer before putting this house on the market. However, there is no window in this hallway, and the space always felt dark and dingy despite there being light primer on the walls.

To add insult to injury, we definitely made the hallway worse. We knew we wanted to rip out the carpet, so we didn't make an effort to protect it while working on any other home improvement projects. We dripped all types of paint, paint stripper, and spackle on the carpet and it soon started to look much worse. Like a Jackson Pollack painting gone terribly, terribly wrong.

We've now made some progress is the hallway and it is starting to look so much better.

 

My husband stripped all the paint off the baseboards and door casings. There are five doors in this space, so that process took at least a month. The wood trim has been painted with a fresh coat of "Relative White" from California Paints. As I described in my last post, my husband agreed to let me use caulk around the edges of the trim, and it made all the difference.  

We ripped up the carpet and discovered beautiful hardwood floors underneath. Given that this hall leads to our one and only bathroom, we had to be a bit creative about refinishing the hardwood if we were going to stay in the house. We decided to do a "quick refinish": we sanded off the top layer of finish, but didn't remove any stain. Then, we applied a new coat of finish immediately before going to bed, being sure to work our way towards the master bedroom. We were able to walk gingerly on the floors the next morning, provided we were barefoot. We repeated the process the next night to apply a second coat of finish.

 

As I mentioned, there is limited natural light in this space. Rather than fighting the space and trying in vain to make it light and bright, we decided it would be better to work with what we have. Our goal became to make this space feel warm and cozy, rather than bright. Once we decided on this approach, choosing the paint color was much easier. The shade we used is called "Asian Jute" and it's from California Paint's Historic Colors of America collection. It's a deep beige with rich gold undertones.

According to the folks at California Paints, this particular shade has been used in almost every architectural period in American history: Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, and Victorian. We like feeling this connection to the past and knowing that we've selected a color that has been used in American homes for hundreds of years.

Our bathroom does not have a linen closet, so we store linens in this antique washstand. We believe this dates to the 1920s or 1930s. The marble top is one of my favorite features, as well as the intricate hardware.

A small antique lamp sits on top of the washstand. Its twin lives one flight down, on a table in our entry hall.

If my husband and I ever need to get ready at the same time, this mirror comes in handy. I can work on my hair and makeup out in the hallway, so that he's free to use the bathroom. It's just an added bonus that this mirror casts a shadow resembling the Bat Signal.

Last but not least, this cherished piece of artwork was a wedding gift from a former boss. His wife is an artist and she made this lovely mixed-media piece. The gold and olive green tie in perfectly with the wall color and the runner we chose for this space.

As with all of our projects, this one isn't quite done. We still need to repair some cracks in the ceiling and give it a fresh coat of paint. One of the baseboards was in very bad shape, so we pulled it off and will be installing a new one soon. Not seen in this picture is our attic door, which still needs some work. We're waiting for the weather to warm up so that we can remove the door from its frame and take it to the basement to finish removing the paint.

 Thanks for reading, folks. Have a wonderful week!

The Caulk Fight

My husband and I recently had a fight. A major difference of opinion, if you will. About caulk.

Yes, caulk.

Are you picturing two adults wielding caulk guns, battling it out like a glorified Silly String fight? I wish it were that fun. It was not. This was a verbal tiff. Fortunately, we were able resolve our differences without resorting to projectile home improvement materials.

This is what happens when you've been in a relationship with the same person since you were both 19 years old, and you have nothing else to argue about: at this point, we agree on all the big things, like family priorities, finances, career goals, politics, and religion. Sure, there are small things we disagree about. He doesn't like that I squeeze the toothpaste right in the middle of the tube, every.single.time. I don't like that he hangs his towel on the shower curtain rod, rather than using the empty towel rack.

After a while, we get tired of arguing about toothpaste and towels. We just decide to let it go, because we do not care that much about toothpaste or towels. Instead, we fight about caulk. And the stakes start to feel very high, because we argue so infrequently. We are both strong-willed and accustomed to being in control. It's not a great recipe for compromise. 

When I posted detail shots of our master bedroom, you may have noticed the gaps between the plaster and the crown molding:

Or those little crumbly holes hiding in this corner behind the lamp:

Perhaps you were so enchanted by our lovely antique lamps that you didn't notice the holes (Ha!). Or perhaps you noticed the holes and gaps, but were too polite to point them out. I suspect it's the latter. After all, this is a blog written for people, not magpies. I'm sure you were not fooled by the shiny, pretty things in front of the very imperfect things (I wish that strategy worked, but it doesn't). Thank you for graciously ignoring our house's imperfections.

When my husband S sees those holes, he thinks of words like "character" and "authenticity."

When I see those holes, I think of words like "sloppy" and "unfinished." And also, "vexing." Very vexing. I've painted these walls with two finish coats, so presumably the walls should be done. I should be moving on to other projects. But now that I've seen those gaps and holes, I cannot unsee them. I fixate on them every time I come into the bedroom. And similar gaps can be found in other places in our home, as well.

I figured the solution was to fill in those gaps with latex caulk, then touch up the bedroom wall (or repaint the whole wall if needed.) In hindsight, I regret not spending a bit more time prepping the walls, because repainting an entire wall will take much longer. When I suggested filling in the holes with caulk, S looked horrified and very emphatically told me, "I am not okay with using caulk on our plaster walls. Definitely NOT." His objection is not that it would be a waste of time to redo the nearly-finished work in this room. This would be a fair point, but it's not the point he's making. His issue is with the caulk itself.

Keep in mind: I am not suggesting we use caulk to fix structural issues. To repair plaster cracks, we used Big Wally's Plaster Magic. It's a pricey product, but the results seem worth the investment. To repair larger issues in our walls, my husband has been teaching himself how to apply plaster (brown coat, scratch coat, skim coat...the whole nine yards). I am only suggesting using caulk to fill these tiny, hard to reach holes that are purely aesthetic. The caulk would serve no structural or functional purpose whatsoever.

Whenever I'm told I can't do something, I demand to know the reason. And then, once the reason has been supplied, I tend to be enormously skeptical about the validity of the reason. It's not a trait I'm proud of. 

My husband says that historic preservationists often discourage caulk because it does not bond with the plaster. Apparently, the caulk just sits on top of the plaster. I agree with my husband that we should do everything in our power to preserve the plaster. If there is any risk that the caulk will damage the plaster or the woodwork, I don't want to use it. But if caulk doesn't damage the plaster, then I can't see the harm in using it.

I admire his dedication to history and to honoring historic methods, materials, and tools. I think many old homes fall victim to repairs that do not respect the original materials or architecture. I doubt that either of us will ever be guilty of intentionally compromising our home's character. But at the end of the day, I'm also interested in a satisfactory result. I don't want it to look like we cut corners. I want to see the proof of our hard work. 

So, I challenged my husband to produce the evidence: I wanted to read the articles/blog posts/forum conversations/technical papers for myself. Tell me precisely which preservationists have determined that we can't use caulk. Because if I have to keep looking at these holes and gaps on a daily basis, I want to know who is to blame for my discontent (I'm kidding...sort of). But I genuinely wanted to understand why it would, apparently, be so detrimental to use caulk on our historic walls. What's the danger of using caulk on plaster?

I gave my husband a ten day ultimatum: produce satisfactory anti-caulk evidence, or else I am buying a tube of caulk.

I was victorious:

Before the end of the ten day period, my husband surrendered. He told me to go ahead and buy the caulk. I'm not sure what happened. It's possible he relented when he saw how much those holes were bothering me. It's possible that he wasn't able to locate the anti-caulk articles. It's also possible that he invented the "evidence" all along. I'll never know. But it doesn't matter because caulk is a go!

Don't tell S, but in truth, I was about to surrender. I had nearly resigned myself to looking at these holes every day. After all, the man agreed to light pink in our master bedroom. That counts for a lot in my book. It should have been my turn to compromise, right? But S is a better, less stubborn person than I am.

To celebrate my success, I experimented with the caulk gun last weekend, filling in the gaps around the door casings in our upstairs hallway. Here are a few before and after photos.

 

 

The upstairs hallway has now been freshly painted and the caulk made all the difference. I can hardly believe how good the hallway looks, thanks to a little caulk. I'll share the hallway makeover in a few days. And in the coming weeks, I'll be filling in all those gaps in our bedroom. Hooray!

 

~The Papered House has a strange definition of success