The Old Farmhouse Needed a Lot of Work

 As mentioned in my previous entry

the old plaster was coming loose from the lathe. 

If anyone was too rambunctious upstairs a new crack

might form on the ceiling downstairs! 

An interesting aside about old plaster, the coarse base layer
was full of horsehair, which made it strong and then the
skim coat was thin and smooth, sticking well to the coarse base. 

The Old Farmer spent many years as time and money allowed
knocking off the loose plaster and putting up drywall.

 The Old Farmer's Wife was usually in charge of choosing
a suitable wallpaper to finish the project.
She was conservative and classic in her choices
so not to offend anyone's sensibilities.

There were places with old wallpaper and sound plaster. 

Removing old wallpaper was quite the project. Not the easy
damp and strip of the new glues. This stuff was on there!
and in many layers! You had to rent a steamer. It had a big flat head

That fed the steam to the surface, then followed scrapping, 

there were places with 10 layers of old paper! 

It was a hot messy job.

The fascinating thing was when old dates

were found penciled on the wall under the paper. 

I remember in the front hall a place
marked with the paperer's name and date of the project.
My memory recalls 1896, altho there is some disagreement
about that!