Finishing Steaming Wallpaper - Living Room

This is the north wall of the living room.  Ceilings are 11ft. high

North Wall in the living room taken today June 8th, 2016.  

The dining room in beyond this door.

You may have noticed the era of Queen Anne Victorian houses like this one--are all about doors and privacy.  There are five doorways leading off of the living room.  

 North wall of the living room - with door open to the dining room beyond.

 The woodwork is original.  Consulting with Victorian architecture historian John S from Victorian Revival Group, he wrote to me saying, "the window casings and corner blocks are consistent with an 1885-1895 era house."

There are a number of Stained Glass windows (as shown here in the future office).  John S. our Victorian architecture historian commented, "the windows with the stained glass borders are classic Queen Anne with such windows being one of the defining characteristics of the style."

Stained Glass Doors in the Vestibule.

Two shallow closets flank either side of the stained glass window in the vestibule.

 I asked John S. about the light and dark plaster finishes, and he said, "the brown wall/ceiling finishes are more difficult to explain but in the early 1900's as part of the Arts and Crafts movement's mania for natural finishes, a sand finish was made (sand or crushed garnets mixed with plaster lime) and left unfinished.  If you have checked the finish and there's a thin white of finish coat of plaster under the sand finish, then it was added over the original."

What is certain--the original walls have been repaired several times--seeing the different grades of wall finishes from dark brown coarse scratch coat (especially on the ceiling) to smoother lighter finish coat on the main body of the living room walls.  The darker brown coarse scratch coat appears in some of the freeze, but again not all of the freeze around the room.  We're definitely scratching our heads about the dark crown coarse scratch coat.

With the house settling over the years, we expected to find previously repaired wall cracks coming from the corners of door openings.  These former wall cracks were filled with a tough, but shiny compound (unknown).  Those filled spots have been more difficult to remove the old wallpaper.  The repairs were sometimes sloppy and unsanded, making the wallpaper look like bumpy veins through the wallpaper.  We'll make sure those are secure and smooth.

To the right is the south wall, and you can see the left corner of the fireplace.

Through the wide doorway are double doors leading to the future office.

Do you suppose it was at one time Dr. Carey's patient examination room (1892-1899)?

At the left--the fireplace mantle and the doorway with another set of double doors to bedroom 1.

Photo of Will steaming second layer of wallpaper--south wall of the living room, just above the fireplace mantle.

The rolling scaffold was so handy to have on this project.  I used it in my 1893 Victorian Farmhouse Restoration in Scandinavia, WI.

Today, William finished the last section of the freeze.  On the second day of  wallpaper stripping, my husband Jon located our wallpaper steamer.  The steamer sure makes removing wallpaper easier than spritzing with water infused with fabric softener.  The freeze was a challenge as it was PAINTED WALLPAPER.

It is a back-breaker, neck-breaker  removing the peeling paint from the coarse brown scratch coat on the ceiling.  The steamer helps, but oh my, standing with your arm up in the air, holding the steamer plate in position on the ceiling hurts a body quickly.

I tried 20 minutes steaming the ceiling, and handed it over to Will.  On the way driving home a little later, my bicep muscle went into a painful cramp.  Patience is everything.  We work on the hard stuff like the ceiling, a bit at a time.  Gotta pick your battles.  One workday flows into another, one day at a time until the project is finished--then continue the punch list to restore all the bits and pieces of the living room.

I guarantee, in two weeks time you'll see the living room turn the corner and take on the beauty of a inviting living room.  Somehow, it deserves a different name than "living room"--that sounds too modern.  Could we call it a receiving room?  Remember: people used to come through these doors to see Dr. Carey the Wild Rose physician and postmaster.

***

Tune in again, to see what happens next.  Linda, a.k.a. Mrs. D (me) begins restoring the old wavy glass windows.  And William will start large crack repairs with Durabond, laying down web tape, and Durabond to secure large and small cracks.  He'll move on to the process of laying down two skim coats of drywall compound.  The result will be, as smooth as a baby's behind when its done.