Restoring Another Victorian House

Good News--for my Brother Will

He bought an 1892 Queen Anne Victorian in Wild Rose, WI

And it needs restoration.  I jumped on board to help him.

http://www.wildrosevictorianhouse.blogspot.com

I hope you will follow the restoration of WILD ROSE VICTORIAN HOUSE.  It is a beautiful home with original woodwork and stained glass windows!

Use the link above, or look to the right margin of my blog--see MY OTHER BLOGS.  Click on the link,  Wild Rose Victorian House.

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Standing in front of the vestibule/front entrance, my brother Will is repairing hairline wall cracks in the living room, covering strips of web tape with Durabond.

I am working the perimeter of the living room, from the chair rail upwards as far as I can reach on my small 4-step ladder.  

When we first looked at the living room with 7 doors, we could see large bumpy, lumpy wall cracks under layers of wallpaper.

We opened those poorly repaired cracks--scoring and cleaning away the bumpy repair with a 5-in-1 tool, then re-filled them in several stages with hand mixed Durabond.  Once the wounds were closed and hand sanded, strips of web tape are embedded with a skim coat of Durabond.  No more bumpy lumpy. 

Will and I spent the better part of June here in the living room steaming layers of wallpaper. 

 Removing wallpaper is tedious even with a steamer.  One thing is for sure, you get to see every single hairline crack as you scrape stamp size bits and bigger hand size pieces of wallpaper.  

The paper was stuck down tight.  

First day, we thought spritzing water infused with fabric softener would remove the wallpaper quickly, but it didn't.  We switched to a steamer and the paper came off better, not great, just better.

Paint was flaking off of these beautiful stained glass windows in the office.  I removed the 1980s shutters, then put on my mask and brought out the shop vac with hepa filter to start scraping.

 2 of 4 Stained Glass Windows in the office.

Below: brother Will has some incredible stained glass windows and doors in the front entrance

He removed the interior door #1 to the living room, giving me better access to removing wallpaper.

Lots of weighted wavy glass windows to remove, re-glaze, reinstall.  

The first window I dismantled and re-glazed--the ropes and weights worked well.  I hope this is good sign for the remaining windows.  I re-glazed with Dep 33 glazing compound.  My first attempt to re-glaze looked terrible, so I  did it again, and again, and 3rd time it looked great--smooth and the bevel angle really nice.  I let it the glaze cure for a more than a week, now I'm ready to prime and paint it.  

I ordered some canvas prints of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin--my brother's favorite statesmen.  Those art pieces will arrive next week for his Living Room and Office.  In the mean time I brought over my copy of a framed print of George Washington.  Ha. Ha.  I brought George over for a visit.  

Sometimes I hear brother Will giggling, and I hear him tell himself what a good jobs he's doing.  

Then I start to laugh.  

This is repetitive, but relaxing work.  I never get used to the idea the room looking a whole lot worse before it turns the corner and starts becoming lovely.  We can see past the mess at this point, and are excited about the next steps.  Hope you'll follow WILD ROSE VICTORIAN HOUSE blog.