One of the things I noticed when first touring the Queen was that the canvas of her very being,
her plaster, was cracking on every wall.
My first thought was, Oh NO! Her foundation must be a mess.
But it’s not!
It was replaced in 1986
The foundation was just fine.
With the exception of a little area in the kitchen and dining room, the perimeter was rock solid.
Last week the Queen had a little tune up to those areas in question.
Gracie & Greta wanted to help too…
Or maybe the workers had lunch on this wood block and they are searching for crumbs?
The house is now sporting nice tight floors.
Back To The Cracks In The Plaster
Granted, this lovely old home has been settling and swaying in the breezes for over 123 years.
I’ve decided that I should look at these cracks as the wrinkles of her life.
Each deep crevice
each trailing line
telling a story.
A bumpy road map to the history of this home.
And that is exactly what these cracks have done.
They give us an idea of how they came to be.
It’s difficult to see, but there are cracks everywhere and then textured plaster over the cracks
and then gloppy patch jobs over the texture where cracks came back thru.
With the advice from my contractor friend Dona,
I decided to do a little exploratory on one of the rooms
We just decided to open up one of the cracks
That’s all I had planned to do.
I was stunned to see how the plaster just fell right off the wood lathe.
It just disintegrated into small rubble and dust!
My goodness, look at the cracks, under cracks, under cracks!
WHAT???
So we dug a little further.
Opened a section on an wall that shared the exterior.
And then took some molding off…
It was apparent that this plaster was in much worse shape than we had thought
Look at the piles of plaster dust on the floor!
I had been warned by my dear friends John & Kara from the SPB Historical Society that keeping the plaster would be a difficult task
Not to get my heart set on it.
But my heart WAS set on it.
But seeing this changed my mind VERY quickly!
I was starting to connect the dots here….or in this case the cracks!
Here’s The History:
In 1933 the owner of the home pulled a permit to have the plaster repaired. It was already failing way back then.
In 1950 the next current owner was putting wood paneling up all over the place to cover up the unsightly cracks
In 1986 the next current owner decided to skim coat an 80’s texture over all of the cracks without really fixing them
The texture was thick, and messy near the baseboards and corner blocks.
In 1998 the next new owner tried desperately to fill in the cracks right over the existing texture, while new deep cracks continued to form.
Band-aid, after Band-aid, after Band-aid…
or as my son would say: PUT LIPSTICK on A PIG!
ENOUGH!!!!!
It turns out that back when they built this house they
USED SAND FROM THE BEACH
A few blocks away!
WHAT????
With all that salt and minerals in it.
That’s a No-No!
The plaster was already failing by 1933,
who knows when it really started to crack and crumble!
This poor Queen deserves so much better than this!
It is so interesting to figure this out!
I wasn’t planning on taking the plaster off
But I don’t really see any other choice.
I could have a specialist come in and repair ALL the cracks
And let me tell you there are more than you can really see in the photos.
But in 5 to 8 to 10 years, by beautifully restored home will be a cracked up mess again
So…OFF with her plaster!
It pains me to see the Queen like this, I am sure she is hurting
Or perhaps she is secretly thrilled that someone has finally diagnosed her ailment
SALTED PLASTER CRACK-O-SIS
The next post should be a real eye opener.
I am still on my quest for Antique Doors. I am happy to report, I have found some, still working out the details and that will be fun.
If you missed the post about the pretty doors you can read My Obsession With Antique Eastlake Victorian Doors
