Archive for the 'Plaster' Category

Presents from Summer

Saturday, June 11th, 2005

While I was away last week, M. and the Old Man suffered through the hottest (and most humid) five-day stretch we’ve had in two years. And us without our air conditioning yet–they’re starting the install on this Wednesday!

The huge swing in humidity in the house resulted in a goodly amount of condensation on the external walls of our Southeast basement storage room, which is what we use as a pantry for dry goods. In return, the condensation brought with it some nice stinky spots of mold on the bottom 2 inches of the wall and the neighboring 6 inches of floor. Not to be outdone, I ran off to Home Depot and bought a dehumidifier and plopped it in the middle of the storage room. In the first six hours of operation, it sucked three gallons of water out of the basement air. Before the end of the week I’m going to run out and get a cheap garden hose to allow it to empty right into the basement floor drain. One problem solved, one to go.

The other present we got was that the dining room ceiling started to flake. I could tell that it had been skim-coated by the previous owner, but something mustn’t have been done correctly because I can see little quarter-sized cracks forming on various parts of the ceiling. I don’t think it will start falling off the ceiling for a few months, but only time will tell. I’m not sure (aside from re-plastering the ceiling) what we’re going to do about this, but for now, I’m doing my best to convince the paint to hold on for another year or two.

The AC, once installed, should help keep the humidity level in the house low, and I’m hoping that that will make the Old Man much happier with our summers. Is the AC installed yet?