I like plaster too, but I can't even find Keenes Cement (slow cure, hard plaster) anymore! (I want some just to experiment with scagliola and American marezzo.)

Posted by: akryeguy at March 4, 2008 12:54 PM in response to The Sky is Falling

Interesting, all the suggestions you got over this.

Mine: Gold leafing is a good idea.
Try out some on a test frame to see if you can deal with the process first. I believe Daniel Smith Artist's Materials still sells a basic kit out of Seattle, though I imagine you could get some closer to NYC.

You don't even have to go legit gold leaf as small brush strokes of the Ralph Lauren metallics fake it pretty well. They make so many gradations of golds, brasses and bronzes that it hurts.

I once painted an entire courtroom cornice with a detail sprayer (in gold). Had to rig the gravity feed up to a 2 qt. pressure pot with a copper tube and a compression fitting though. I wasn't going to live through it (30 x 40 foot courtroom) 5 ounces of paint at a time! Modern Masters also makes good gold paint. It's expensive. $25 a quart last I checked. Mirror in there also sounds good. Just set it off with a margin, like a mat around a photograph if it doesn't fit.

Posted by: akryeguy at March 4, 2008 12:42 PM in response to Gussying up the Vestibule

I'm not buying that story.

I once was assigned a retrofit of a kitchen cabinet stack for new appliances with a client who called herself "an interior designer". I should have asked a little further because I assumed she used a tape measure regularly. She asked me if what she had to work with was a standard size. It puzzled me, because there are three standard sizes. I just answered back, "Uh...yes!", as she hurriedly ran off for something important. She proceeded to go buy a bunch of Kitchen Aid appliances that would sit in the way for a whole month before the process finally came around to the retro-fit. Then surprise! The one she got on sale was the largest size, two inches too wide. She got demoted in my mind from "designer" to "decorator" that day.

There was an obvious communication gap there, and I assumed half the responsibility, but she was in tears and hysterical to work with from one day to the next. I know better than to just give general answers now, even if my clients don't want to be that involved in details.

Later she would have me cut a hole for a decorative bowl in a bowed-front dresser drawer for a powder-room sink. What a mess. A few months later Lowe's were selling them like that with the sink already in them. Must've been some kind of trend.

Planning things that far out in advance things have to be written down somewhere. Sketches at least ought to be drawn. Measurements need to jibe. This makes the renovator smarter than the fixtures, or their manufacturers.

I've never worked with Ikea products, but if they're like any of the rest I'm sure that they can be pretty crummy to deal with when you need to return something.

But yeah, Stupid Ikea!

Posted by: akryeguy at January 20, 2008 3:25 PM in response to Stupid Ikea Cabinets

Just one question about the blue tape everywhere: Do your painters assume it's faster to re-coat this way? I haven't seen too many younger contractors work without it. Makes me believe no one has good enough hand to eye coordination anymore to just "cut it in"!

The only places I do that is where the client wants a sharp, hard-edged line (new moldings). I use clear caulking as a gasket under blue tape to prevent paint bleed through when it's required. (It really helps to wipe the excess off with a dry rag too.) When working in older homes with slightly wavy walls such taping up of a laser-straight line inbetween surfaces can make you visually crazy without knowing why for a while.

Posted by: akryeguy at January 20, 2008 2:34 PM in response to The power of paint - part 3

While painting for a couple they once asked me what I thought about picking a color for walls in a bathroom that had small purple and onyx tiles. (They'd already been disappointed by two interior decorators, who'd given them a free opinion - being old friends). I said green, and they looked at me funny. Finally they asked me why and I told them, "because it's a split-compliment on secondary hues". They looked at me funny again. This went on for two weeks! Then I lended the wife my color-theory book, which was educational about why certain colors work in certain places. Asked her what she thought of it. "Seemed like a book for color retards!" Sheesh! I was only being helpful. To solve the problem before they could argue any more about it their son and his wife came in on Friday night and painted it light purple, kinda light mulberry. It sucked! Monotony! Boring!
Fine! I was off the hook.
Moral of the story? Never give free advice.

Posted by: akryeguy at January 16, 2008 1:16 AM in response to I say po-ta-to, You say po-tat-o

Our company in southern Colorado does plaster repairs for less than $50k! Sheesh!
No one above mentioned anything about using Daraweld (concrete "glue") to prep your surfaces before patching. If you make a mixture of it, 50/50 with water, it soaks into the more fragile portions of your damage and consolidates it. Sometimes plaster becomes fragile with exposure to water, even if it's only condensation. This takes years sometimes to do the damage, but there you go. My father has used this method for thirty years, once in a large (old) auditorium ceiling and none of it has ever come down. I don't know if it's even cracked again. The stuff also acts like a microscopic cushion. When an old fogie tells you "They don't build them like they used to back in the old days!" You can tell him (or her) for me, "Thank heavens!" There have been many improvements in materials and methods. To get apprentices familiar with this material and process I have them make two small egg shapes by hand. One with a quart of Gypsum setting-mix and this mixture instead of water. The other with same and water. These get set aside until they are dry enough to sand. Handed a metal rasp I tell them to smooth the egg to a nicer shape. They usually come to me and say they can't even rasp the first one. It's too hard!
That gives them an idea of what is going on. Try it for yourself. P.S. The plaster secret is this: sugar in the water to slow it down, salt to speed it up.

Posted by: akryeguy at January 16, 2008 12:29 AM in response to Help for Cracking Plaster Walls

Like reading your blog as a cross section of D-I-Y across the USA. Imagine how it must be in New Orleans! One radio show documented the floodwaters coming within three inches of some old Sea Saint Studios Preservation Hall Band master tapes.

Money ain't no taboo subject! Gimme drama! Gimme termite damage! Gimme little triumphs stripping paint! I love it all.

Posted by: akryeguy at December 25, 2007 1:41 AM in response to Reality Check

Previously I have only sprinkled my personal blog with what's going on with my house, only hinting at the actual disaster area that it truly has become. Now I've taken a step towards letting my house have it's own blog, warts and all. I'm the proverbial "shoemaker who's children don't have any shoes", read, (carpenter who is slow to work on his own house).

I commend you for having the moxie to write about your renovations. I've had to sneak up on it when it came to my own. Though I live out in the sticks I have a great respect for people living in the city. A lot of what I do in terms of quality and refinement means that I'd probably do better, all the way around, working in a city. I've enjoyed reading about your experiences, and not once taken it as vanity, or a waste of time. It's a slice of life somewhat associated with what I know...at a faster pace.

Posted by: akryeguy at December 25, 2007 1:21 AM in response to Serenity now please

Great tip! Is Structolite plaster really difficult to work with?

Posted by: ohiise at January 16, 2008 7:05 AM in response to Help for Cracking Plaster Walls

Isn't it true that any quick fix approach to cracking plaster is bound not to last? After all, we're talking about years and years of accretion of damage over layers of repair over damage etc. Isn't the only permanent fix skim-coating all the walls?

Posted by: guest at January 16, 2008 12:55 PM in response to Help for Cracking Plaster Walls

Call Mirage studios in long island city at 718 361 1071 they sell master of plaster products that completely restore old plaster walls without sanding or bonding agents.Your walls will be as smooth as glass.Check out masterofplaster.com

Posted by: guest at January 16, 2008 8:50 PM in response to Help for Cracking Plaster Walls

Yeah, I just ordered from them. Their product is cool, but also not cheap.

Posted by: ohiise at January 17, 2008 11:59 AM in response to Help for Cracking Plaster Walls