My latest project

[CYBORG]

thanks for the screen saver picture

[Whiskerfish]

[Fred Camper]

Ceilings are the worst for dust inhalation, hope you have a great respirator. Based on the picture, it seals very well.

[Liam]

Back a ways I saw the old cloth insulated cabling. Any idea how old that stuff would be? I have never seen anything like that.

[Track T 2411]

Cloth insulated cabling was used at least thru the 1930's in the US. Many municipalities had local codes that required all electrical wiring be run in metal conduit as well (some still do).
The common term for it is 'knob and tube' as the hot and common wires were run separately using ceramic insulators. The 'knob' is the fastener, and the 'tube' is used any time the wire runs thru lumber, lathe, plaster, etc. Definitely not up to code today!

[Whiskerfish]

This place has been redone so many times. Over the decades there have been as many as 6 fireplaces (3 main floor with corresponding second floor openings) in this house. At one point it had radiators then hot water baseboard and now forced hot air. I know for certain that when it was built there was no indoor plumbing or electricity so that was all added at some point.

This is the oldest picture I have of it. No idea when it was taken. The yard the picture was taken from had a house built on it in 52 so it was before that but..... The city tax office list the house as built in 1900 but I am told it was at least 10 years prior to that. I am also "told" it was once a 40 acre Hog farm. When I moved in 20 years ago a elderly Lady from a couple streets over stopped in and gave us some stories. He Great Aunt used to babysit her here. One other factoid is that the house sits backwards on the lot. It was built before there were streets here. In the right of the picture is the Carriage house. That is my driveway now. We dug up several horseshoes when digging that out. This area was not developed until after the Jamestown Exposition (Worlds Fair) of 1907. It took the Navy 10 years to acquire the property that was used for the fair to start building Norfolk Naval Base in 1917.

Old Picture blown up.jpg

[Liam]

The house certainly has a lot of history and character. I find the building methods used in the old days fascinating. Engineers knew their stuff back then, certainly as regards materials. Over here a lot of structures are made of stone, there are lots of railway bridges built on slender stone columns, and arches, very basic construction, but they have stood the test of time. Nowadays it's all reinforced concrete.

[Whiskerfish]

[Oldewing]

Drywall, [sheetrock down south] is one of my least favorite, followed closely by wallpaper. Nice work Boss.

[Whiskerfish]

Been puttering at the point up for a couple days. Primer coat goes on tomorrow. I think she said she is mixing some yellow color in the primer so should be interesting

Then I will get to see how bad my work is

[CYBORG]

I'm sure it's fine...but if your worried, wear sun glasses.

[Whiskerfish]

Well my mud work needs a fair amount of attention but the paint work needs "lot" of attention!

That room when complete will have zero natural light and that is why I agreed to the yellow. But now even "She" says it is TOO Yellow. We may stick with a yellow but it will definitely be a toned down version. This is a just a thin primer coat so you can see through it in many places and a lot of the splotchy is wet verses dry areas, still it gives an idea of what it will look like. Ceiling came out half way decent. A few areas where I was moving the mud knife too fast and got a bunch of air bubbles. Those are easy to skim over and fix.

20240518_143741.jpg

[Whiskerfish]

Looks a bit better now that it is dry. Still too yellow..

20240519_072847.jpg

[Sagebrush]

You might try a very light shade of gray just slightly darker than white. Provides an elegant look but still brightens the room with a nice contrast against painted or stained trim.

[Whiskerfish]

I actually like a Cream or a light gold. She wanted the yellow and I have not given into to her much on this project so that was an easy one. We are not in a rush. And now that I have looked more closely I have a significant amount of mud work to correct.

I have 5 trips in the next 3 months so time for this is rapidly waning. I will work it when I can but as the seasons change so do the priorities.