BedStuy Reno
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April 3, 2008
Catch-up Work - Front Parlor
We have been hard at work chez P+G. Hence the lack of blogging! But a lot of great stuff has been going on, and I'm going to attempt to catch you all up on it. One of the major developments has been the nearly complete installation of our new kitchen, setting another of G's tile creations in the little half bath on the Lower Level, and a lot of plaster work and some last drywall work.
One of the things we've been doing is addressing the front parlor - we've finally got walls! It is awesome after staring at studs for so long. We decided to laminate our ceiling, to save what detail we have left, but to smooth things out in general. In the top four photos, you can see the beginning of that lamination process - we took 3/8 sheetrock and laminated it directly over the plaster ceiling - conveniently hiding holes and cracks and all the other imperfections, yet being thin enough to allow the mouldings and medallion to still have relief depth.
Stay tuned for some kitchen updates!
Comments
Looking good. That ceiling medallion is in really amazing shape!
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at April 4, 2008 8:58 AM
Nice work on the ceilings. We ended up with a plaster/sheetrock hodgepodge in the front parlor with some preserved moldings and medallions. We did a very, very light skim on the sheetrock for consistent texture. Maybe that's not necessary with the ceiling because you don't look to closely.
How'd the final pass on the kitchen/hallway floors turn out?
Posted by: slopefarm at April 4, 2008 2:13 PM
Hey Slopefarm, the beauty of the plan here is that by laminating over the whole ceiling, between and around the mouldings and medalion, we will wind up with a uniform surface in the end. Granted, we're not matching mouldings and putting things back where they are no longer there, it will at least look finished, and we can always add back the missing moulding later on if we really feel the need.
What I really want to do is build in a floor to ceiling a bookshelf wall around the double doors between the front and back parlor!
As for the floors, your question reminded me to post an image of the finished floor downstairs from just before we started installing the kitchen.
- Peter (from Bed Stuy Reno)
Posted by: guest at April 4, 2008 2:37 PM
I appreciate the post. "laminating" like this is something I'd never heard of. I'm hunting for a house now and definitely see many with the details I long for but in terrible condition. It's good to see how people deal with these places in different ways.
Best of luck as you proceed.
Posted by: guest at April 8, 2008 1:24 AM
I love those around-doorways bookshelves walls! With nice molding at the bottom to match the baseboard, so it is all one line. And it would look great if you added a line of trim to the ceiling a few inches in front of it (and removed a bit from the ends of the long line of ceiling trim so as to have a square corner) so it looks really built-in.
Posted by: guest at April 8, 2008 5:19 PM
Hi,
I have the same ceiling problem with cracks, my contractor wants to tear down and replace with sheetrock and recoat with plaster. My question is: How was the sheetrock attached to the ceiling?
Thanks,
Helen
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 10:14 AM
What our guys did was slather the back of the new sheetrock with joint compound to help it adhere to the existing ceiling, and then screwed into the joists as you normally would.
If you have no details you want to save, then it would be one thing to tear down your plaster. But if you have details you are trying to save, it is still possible to carefully take down the field but leave up the mouldings and medallion, but it can be risky.
- Peter
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 6:41 PM
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