4th of July Fireworks - Scratch Coat on Living Room Ceiling

Will poses for a photo in his living room

4th July, 2016  4:30 pm

I was getting ready to leave, and took one more photo.  My brother Will stopped for a moment to let me snap this photograph of him.  

Here he proudly holds a telescopic pole that he had attached to the wallpaper steamer.  What a great tool!   Will attached the pole to the steamer with Gorilla Glue Tape--and it was the perfect for removing paint from the ceiling.  

The ceiling cracks are repaired now with web tape and hard as a rock Durabond 90.  Scratch coat ceiling in Durabond.  Then Will applied a skim coat of premixed Drywall mud on the ceiling and the frieze. 

He is planning one more smoother than a baby's behind skim coat (finish coat) of premixed Drywall mud on the ceiling and frieze.  

I worked on wall repairs below the chair rail.  Followed cracks with green plastic web tape, embedded tape with a skim coat of hand mixed Durabond 90.  

I'll try to remember to take a photo of our two fabulous stainless steel pans where we mix up the Durabond 90 and just enough water, and transport the mix a trowel at a time to repair each crack.  

Most of the time I'm moving around the room, sanding woodwork and wall crack repair work.  I move around a lot--so I am out of Will's way--as he does all the high work on a scaffold.  

Note to Mayfair Mistress:  

Thank you for leaving us a comment and question about the frieze.  And grateful to you for gently informing me how to spell frieze instead of freeze.  So glad to learn new things--and I love your Queen Anne's Revenge blog.  http://www.sparrowhaunt.com/

Today, I learned how to add comments to Wild Rose Victorian House blog.  Sorry, that I wasn't able to publish comments, until after the fact.  

Nonetheless, I've pasted your comment below to make amends.  

Mayfair Mistress writes:

Is it possible that the upper trim (I assume it's picture rail) was moved further up the wall at some point? It would make perfect sense if it were once on the edge line between the dark and light plaster, with the upper section being left as a scratch coat to receive a wallpaper frieze. If so, there should be obvious patched nail holes (this was the case in our house where the picture rails were all removed). 

Answering Mayfair's question:  Will worked high up on the walls--he hasn't seen patched nail holes indicating there had been a picture rail.  

However, I believe there was a picture rail, as you might see what I think I see--a faint narrow level line on the photos.  Do you see it too?  We've run into different grades of sandy plaster repairs, and perhaps nail holes may have already been repair in the past--when the the picture rail was removed. 

Looking at the chair and frieze moldings--they are a modern pine wood molding--not old.  It may have been added in the 1980s when the previous owner was also adding window shutters with plastic/faux glass inserts.  The chair and frieze molding are identical profiles, and they don't have layers and layers of paint like the door woodwork has.  

***

Other thoughts:

Below are photographs of the Wrolstad/Quien 1893 House (my restored home in Scandinavia, WI). Oirginal photos were taken in the dining room and living room of my 1893 Wrolstad/Quien Victorian House just after it was built.  You can see narrow picture rail in the dining room, no crown molding at the ceiling, and no chair rail.  

Note:  The living room has picture rail that begins about 18 inches down from the ceiling.  In this photo of my 1893 home the ceilings are 11 ft., same height as my brother Will's 1892 Wild Rose Victorian House.

photo images sent to me by Heather, great great granddaugther of John Olson Wrolstad

By the way--the three dark triangles at the top left of the photo are tassles of a scarf of some sort hanging from the doorway spandrel.   We still have the fancy wood spandrels in four rooms.