How we are doing - The Kitchen

Today I decided to work some more on the kitchen.  We purchased a couple of different tools; a wallpaper scourer and scraper, plus a product called DIF.  I thought this may work better than doing one layer at a time.  But as usual there were more surprises to be found.

 

So this is a chimney hole, which probably means there was a stove chimney into the main chimney exhaust stack for the house.  So even if I wanted to uncover the brick I can't leave this hole or brick it to make it look like the rest of the wall.  Now I have to figure out how I am going to fix.

 

So this is how the wall is looking once I get all the layers off except for the grey stuff.

Second problem you see the wood faux beam, all the layers of wall paper, yes even the green stuff, is tucked up under that wood.  This means that the wood beams were added at the same time as the ugly green painting was done on the embossed paper.

 

Next surprise we found after we removed part of the trim from the door frame, was more faux tile under the orange painted faux tile.  We decided to remove the painted orange mess but did not anticipate the amount of glue that was used on both occasions.

 So here is the amount of glue that was used and yes the old faux tile was also very well glued to the plaster.

 Also the answer to; "what is the dark brown stuff?" that we found on other parts of the wall, it turns out to be the backing for the older faux tiles.

When Richard pulled more of the orange stuff off it also pulled both layers of plaster off, the top finishing smooth plaster and the rough first layer.  So now we are down to the lathe and wondering what we shall do at this point with the kitchen.

Just above the brown stuff is an eight inch piece of drywall, probably used when the plaster was cut out to aid in rewiring the kitchen.  It looks as if the drywall is the same thickness as both layers of plaster.  Which gives us the option of taking all the old plaster down and then drywall over the lathe.

 

This is what the lower part of the wall looks like now.  The dark brown is the backing of the old faux tile, the white is the finishing plaster, the grey is the rough plaster that is cracked in a lot of area and the lathe which looks in pretty good shape.  So do I remove all the plaster and just drywall over the lathe or do I continue with my idea of buying "Perma-glas Mesh" to cover the whole wall and then plaster on top of it gradually filling the holes first until I've built them up and then level out the wall.

The last picture is what we found along the bottom of the wall, still not sure what it is but we have more along the bottom of that wall.

That was it for today and still I have as many questions as I did before.  I would love to have help with ideas from those who have done this sort of thing.  We really want to retain the integrity of the house and bring it back to its original style.  We know the kitchen has been absolutely butchered over the years, the one doorway we thought was original may not have been.  The fact that the hole in the chimney stack is only a short distance from that door would indicate that it may possibly be where the stove was located.

It would be great to find original plans for the house.

  

Renovations Continue

Just before I show what I've done today I thought I would like to just remind us all it is still Christmas with this picture of our mantel.

Happy New Year to all our Family and Friends for 2013

I was feeling a bit down today, which doesn't make sense considering my back is now sorted out and no longer in pain.  Anyway to amuse myself this afternoon I thought I would try doing some more in the kitchen.  We found yet another different wall paper above the basement door.

A typical kitchen paper I would say about the 1970's

I have cleared the majority of the paper from the top of the door to the hall way.  There are cracks from both corners of the door frame and the right side moves when you push it in.  I still think I can repair this without removing all the plaster.

 The grey covered material is harder to remove now so I am having second, or is it third thoughts on trying to remove it all.  I think going forward I plan to remove all the actual wallpaper.  I will remove any of the grey fabric product that is loose and comes away, mainly over areas that have been patched or placed over cracks in the plaster and missing plaster.  Just to give you and idea the white is either original plaster or patched areas, the beige is still paper that needs removing, the yellow is the paint on the plaster wall.  I will have to chip out some of the patching which is higher than the wall and leaves a bulge.

Once all the wallpaper is removed I shall use Mario Rodriguez method of refinishing the wall this method of his mimics the original plaster, I shall follow the directions in; 'Renovating Old Houses; Bringing Life to Vintage Homes, by George Nash. It will be a lot of work.  I hope I can find the product he uses, it is a reinforcing mesh that is coated with joint compound.  Before I even think of that I have to clean the walls, chip out loose plaster, these walls appear to have two types of plaster a rough grey type and then a smooth white layer.  So far more work than I even imagined when we first pulled some of the green paper down.