1888 Victorian (Shingle style???)

[Gothichome]

Munch, your deep into a project most of us have done, I think I would go for a plaster repair as well. Is the rest of the wall well keyed and solid? From what I see in that room most of the issues are hole repairs. You will need to find a way to reinstate the lath though in those big holes.
Nice to find the signatures, try your best to keep them intact and as Phill mentioned add yours before papering. Just look at the fancy flourishes under their names, who does that any more. Also printing your name might be good idea, cursive writing is fast becoming a lost art, in 50 years it will be a totally lost script and no one will be able to read it.
Look forward to further updates and pics.

[Munch517]

Munch, your deep into a project most of us have done, I think I would go for a plaster repair as well. Is the rest of the wall well keyed and solid? From what I see in that room most of the issues are hole repairs. You will need to find a way to reinstate the lath though in those big holes.
Nice to find the signatures, try your best to keep them intact and as Phill mentioned add yours before papering. Just look at the fancy flourishes under their names, who does that any more. Also printing your name might be good idea, cursive writing is fast becoming a lost art, in 50 years it will be a totally lost script and no one will be able to read it.
Look forward to further updates and pics.

Yeah most of the wall is pretty sturdy, where it seems loose I've used the "plaster magic" stuff to clamp it back down. I made an attempt at patching those holes with lath and it became obvious that that was going to be a headache. I found out about using drywall as a base for plaster so I just patched the holes with drywall set back about a 1/4", enough for a base and finish coat of veneer plaster. In a perfect world I'd do it with lath along with lime and gauging plaster but I need this room finished asap so I'm going to go the easy route.

You seem to assume that I'd be doing wall paper, I was going to just paint. Is there any particular reason to chose wallpaper over paint besides aesthetics/historical integrity? It does feel weird being the first one to paint 130 year old walls.

A few pics to bring my progress fully up to date...

Showing some of my drywall patches and the plaster clamps on the ceiling:

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This is the first door I've stripped yet, a little more sanding/steel wool then it's ready to shellac:

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I had to peel back some drywall to finish stripping the door frame outside this room, I'm going to pull the drywall off the rest of this back stairwell area fairly soon:

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[Munch517]

I also wanted to post these old pictures I found of my house. The first is a picture posted to my historic district's Facebook page, probably from the 1980's or maybe late 70's.

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The second is an assessors photo from 1963:

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[Manalto]

Your house has a lot of character and appeal. It's wonderful that you're bringing it back to the condition it deserves.

Will you have to drill, score, or otherwise rough up the surface of the drywall before applying the plaster patch? I've got a few similar repairs coming up soon and you've already been helpful by making me aware of Plaster Magic.

[Munch517]

Your house has a lot of character and appeal. It's wonderful that you're bringing it back to the condition it deserves.

Will you have to drill, score, or otherwise rough up the surface of the drywall before applying the plaster patch? I've got a few similar repairs coming up soon and you've already been helpful by making me aware of Plaster Magic.

There's a product called Plaster Weld that I was told to use, usually available at the gypsum supply places. They also recommend that you use it when going over old lath, when applied originally they soaked the lath in water for a day or two, nailed it to the wall and then came back the next day to start plastering; without that process I've been told you need a bonding agent.

There's two YouTube channels I've found to be helpful also, The first is seejanedrill: https://www.youtube.com/user/seejanedrill
She only has a relative handful of videos on plastering but I've found them to be really useful. She's the one I'll be looking more at for when I take a crack at the lime/gauging plaster.


The second is Kirk Giordano plastering: https://www.youtube.com/user/StuccoPlastering
He is much more prolific and shows a combination of modern and older techniques. I'm no expert but I'd guess he's more of what's considered a production guy, he still has a lot of valuable information though.

[Gothichome]

Munch, your home was a real beauty when new, nice to see some one trying to bring it back to it’s former glory. As far as paper on the walls. I guess my inclination for period restoration comes through in my posts. We painted a bedroom, and were the first to put paint to the walls, I felt bad at the time for doing that, and it still bothers me to this day.

[Munch517]

Munch, your home was a real beauty when new, nice to see some one trying to bring it back to it’s former glory. As far as paper on the walls. I guess my inclination for period restoration comes through in my posts. We painted a bedroom, and were the first to put paint to the walls, I felt bad at the time for doing that, and it still bothers me to this day.

As I think about it more I'm really torn as to whether to paint or wallpaper. I feel like I can get away with less perfect walls with wallpaper which is a big bonus, as is the fact that it can be stripped again and brought right back to where I'm at now. I'm going to investigate wallpaper installers in my area and get an idea on price before I move forward.

[Lily left the valley]

I thought of this post last night when I stumbled up a curious UK video series about how various time period homes were killing those living in them. I thought of this post because of wallpaper discussed in the Victorian video.

Here's the Victorian episode, which touches on why wallpaper became the rage, and of course, how some wallpaper was killing people due to arsenic levels. (They mostly only mention the green, due to the higher levels of cupric arsenic in them, but there are others as well which can be seen when they flip through one of the old arsenic paper books.)

It was also a bit of an eye opener for me regarding William Morris. He wasn't just knowingly using aniline dyes, he was also using arsenic in his wallpapers. This was made easier since he just happened to be the director of the biggest arsenic mine in the world at that time, Devon Great Consols.

Pretty amazing stuff!

FWIW, the tone of the videos in the Hidden Killers series reminds me of American Ripley's Believe it or Not shows.

[Munch517]

I thought of this post last night when I stumbled up a curious UK video series about how various time period homes were killing those living in them. I thought of this post because of wallpaper discussed in the Victorian video.

Here's the Victorian episode, which touches on why wallpaper became the rage, and of course, how some wallpaper was killing people due to arsenic levels. (They mostly only mention the green, due to the higher levels of cupric arsenic in them, but there are others as well which can be seen when they flip through one of the old arsenic paper books.)

It was also a bit of an eye opener for me regarding William Morris. He wasn't just knowingly using aniline dyes, he was also using arsenic in his wallpapers. This was made easier since he just happened to be the director of the biggest arsenic mine in the world at that time, Devon Great Consols.

Pretty amazing stuff!

FWIW, the tone of the videos in the Hidden Killers series reminds me of American Ripley's Believe it or Not shows.

You almost had me worried for a second lol. I watched the part about the wallpaper and I had to go look up when and where they used that dye to make sure it wasn't in my house, thankfully it looks like it was just in Europe and earlier than my house.

After looking into things more I've been leaning towards exclusively using wallpaper as I re-expose the plaster walls, it seems like the right choice given a number of factors. Thanks to Gothichome for chiming in on that before I went ahead with painting.

[Lily left the valley]

I didn't mean to trouble your mind. My apologies for that.

Looking forward to your choices of wallpapers!