A New Coat of Paint: The Study

Back when our home was built, wallpaper was all the rage. So were dark colors of paint, which is why we chose a mulberry paint color for our study.

Before painting...

... and after!

We love this new, dark color. With the high ceilings and the large windows, the space doesn't feel small, as is what sometimes happens when walls are painted a dark color.

Before...

... and after!

That's Jacked Up

A corner of our kitchen was added after the house was built. The odd thing was that it was a floating corner, and there was no support underneath it. Fast forward fifty years, and now we have a sagging problem.

Look to the right of the scaffolding. See the downward slope?

There's nothing holding this corner up!

This is also the same corner that once had a leaky ceiling. Perhaps this addition wasn't carefully planned out and properly built?

In order to fix this problem, the corner would have to be jacked up from the outside... a quarter of an inch at a time. To prevent our windows from being cracked, they took them out and temporarily filled them in with plywood.

It's working!

The jack is doing its job. That's Curt doing his job. 

We were without windows for a while.

The corner is now where it belongs. The deck has been added, too.

Now that the windows are back in, it's a sign that this project is moving along!

Sealing the Ceiling

"You do understand the urgency of this." our home inspector Brian said as he pointed to a section of sagging ceiling plaster in the corner of the kitchen.  "Yes" I replied, "It will be the first thing we have done."  The leaky section of roof and damaged ceiling may not have been exactly the first item we tackled, but it was handled quickly.

The sagging ceiling and mold

While pulling down the crown molding we noticed that in trying to flip the house for a quick profit, the previous owner did not even attempt to address the source of the problem.  Instead of fixing the leaking roof above this corner, he used silicone around the crown molding to prevent the water from running down the walls.  Not exactly a good long-term solution.  Not even a good short-term solution.  It should not have been a solution at all!

Water damaged ceiling

Although we would have preferred to have the roof taken care of first and then the ceiling, the availability of our contractors was in the reverse order.  Bob from Guns Plastering came to replace and repair our ceiling. We were very impressed with his work and his 20 years of experience was certainly evident in the quality.

New drywall

Since rain of any amount avoided our region for what seemed like months, we did not mind at first that the roofing contractor was not available until the next week.  It was when he did not show up when he indicated that we began to be concerned.  When it rained the next day, we were irate.  Our new plastering that Bob worked so hard on now showed evidence of moisture leaking in through the damaged roof.

Beautiful new plaster!

At this point, we decided that the roof needed to be taken care of immediately.  With some invaluable help from my father (he did most of the work), the leaking roof was removed, repaired, sealed and replaced.  In the end, I was glad to have done the work ourselves.  Although it took the better part of a day, we diligently repaired aging boards and sealed every possible place where water could conceivably find a way into the house.

Shortly after the repairs the drought broke with some heavy rainfall, and I am happy to report that the roof held and our plaster remained dry!