finishing the walls

We took a few weeks vacation to start the finishing work on the master bedroom and the first floor.
We started by removing all of the old paint on the perimeter walls.... This was achieved with a hand held scraper over many shifts of bloodied knuckles and sore wrists .
A swipe of the scraper takes the four or five coats of paint down to bare plaster. The paint is so old and hard that it cracked and fractured into tiny chips; cleanup with a vacuum was quick and clean (relatively)

Plaster cracks were gouged out with a dremel tool , filled with plaster and smoothed over. Each of the walls required extensive repairs from generations of neglect and inadequate repair attempts.

We mixed batches of hydraulic lime based mortar, injection grout, and scratch coat plaster using materials from DeGrunchy's lime works ( www.limeworks.us). Same manufacturer as the mortar we used for pointing.

Around forty batches of masonry repair materials later, we're nearly ready to paint the bedroom.

I'll post some photos of the plaster work and the master bedroom ready for paint soon.