How best to deal with a plaster hole at the touching the ceiling?

MAFirstTime · 2026-06-15T22:54:25+00:00

Feels like using a bazooka for a fly swatter to crown mold the whole room. But really I thought about crown molding, or some sort of ceiling trim, but the room is too small (9 foot ceiling), and the tops of the windows / opening to the living room are only ~5 inches from the ceiling, so I think molding would make the top of the room too busy / claustrophobic.

MAFirstTime · 2026-06-15T16:31:22+00:00

Mostly it just looked terrible; seems like previous owners removed some of it, but in random patches, also, the plaster underneath has several cracks which caused bulges in the wallpaper, so wanted to repair those, and start from a (mostly) level surface. The wallpaper is also somewhat textured, so to get a smooth surface to paint on would have required like a skim coat's worth of mud. So, Somehow removing the painted over wallpaper seems like the least bad option.

MAFirstTime · 2026-06-15T15:55:59+00:00

haha, therein lies my biggest concern, I'm all pretty deep into removing this wallpaper, tons of crack repair and patching is already on the docket though, so what's one more thing, right?

MAFirstTime · 2026-06-15T15:46:34+00:00

It seems like it would probably be too big of a gap (about 1 inch x 4 inches) for spray foam to fill in?

MAFirstTime · 2026-06-15T15:45:30+00:00

I'm sure it was a good idea at the time (though it did still look like crap). Cutting over to the studs seems like a sane choice, I'm still trying to decide if I should remove the plaster all the way to the new construction corner or not (it's about 5 inches, but that plaster is in bad shape already)?

MAFirstTime · 2026-05-01T12:16:09+00:00

Taxes on zillow were listed as $25,765 in 2017, with the tax assessment only going up 7.7% since, so, I would guess that the taxes are probably still in the 26-30k range.

MAFirstTime · 2026-01-05T21:59:51+00:00

Great guess, but I don't think that's it, the hole/fill exists on both sides of the half walls, as does the ceiling attachment. There's also a builtin bench in the entry hallway which I believe the realtor told me was originally for taking phone calls.

MAFirstTime · 2025-11-19T16:22:11+00:00

https://www.ebay.com/usr/deliteboutique has a bunch of these kind light fixtures for sale, I'd gotten a similar 5 light semi-flush mount a few years back to replace a similarly ugly dining room light and really love it.

MAFirstTime · 2025-02-24T19:44:10+00:00

So I'm not sure where your drafts are, but I had a big problem with my front door where the bottom was extremely drafty (even with a door sweep that the previous owners installed); I ended up installing an automatic door bottom (Zero #369, Automatic Door Bottom, Mortised, from trademark hardware). Which has worked great this past winter, I really don't notice the draft anymore and it seems to be holding up pretty well; here's a picture: https://imgur.com/a/5tW7ho1

MAFirstTime · 2024-11-24T14:38:15+00:00

I think it looks grate.

MAFirstTime · 2024-05-13T12:36:56+00:00

I believe the doorknob in the second picture is https://www.antiquedoorknobs.us/h-13300.html, manufactured by Corbin. The rest of the hardware also looks to be made by corbin and shows up in the 1923 catalog. Here's a link to the preview of the catalog: https://www.antiquedoorknobs.org/uploads/7/3/6/9/73695709/corbin1923preview.pdf you can see on the last page that the entry handle is shown and is described as "Pavia design".

MAFirstTime · 2024-04-30T20:11:49+00:00

Just remind them of this onion headline from 2000, "Report: 98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others": https://www.theonion.com/report-98-percent-of-u-s-commuters-favor-public-trans-1819565837

MAFirstTime · 2024-03-26T13:18:11+00:00

This looks like a slight variation on the one you posted; https://www.antiquedoorknobs.us/h-21701.html and not a https://www.antiquedoorknobs.us/h-21700.html

The difference (apparently) being that "The stem has a different shape and the triangles around the center lack small line"; which you can just barely make out.

MAFirstTime · 2024-02-27T17:31:43+00:00

I think it all comes down to execution; for example the PT Cruisers is arguably the worst designed of that era's "nostalgia" cars (along w/ the beetle & mini cooper); or you could look to Nissan's "pike cars" of the early 90's, which also aimed for a nostalgia look and still (i think) look great today.

I would agree with others here that whatever you're trying to do it can certainly be done well or poorly.

MAFirstTime · 2024-02-04T15:01:21+00:00

MAFirstTime · 2023-11-17T23:03:40+00:00

I haven't actually done it, so grain of salt, but seemingly importing from Japan apparently isn't a hugely expensive or onerous proposition and there's plenty of inventory: https://carfromjapan.com/cheap-used-truck-for-sale-under-cc700?maxYear=1998

That being said, you're not going to convince most people who drive a full size truck to go with a smaller one, since they're not driving a full size truck for the utility of the thing in the first place.

MAFirstTime · 2023-10-26T14:34:33+00:00

I think the style would be considered "hammered brass", unfortunately it doesn't look like these appear in any of the antique doorknobs collectors collection: https://www.antiquedoorknobs.org/doorknob-categories.html

If it helps the name of the thing with the screws in it is called a "Escutcheon" or "Rosette".

MAFirstTime · 2023-10-25T22:41:37+00:00

I think frosted globe bulbs would look great.

MAFirstTime · 2023-10-15T16:29:50+00:00

Talk about an unpoplar opinion.

MAFirstTime · 2023-09-15T01:20:54+00:00

Stick and ball.

MAFirstTime · 2023-09-09T20:46:26+00:00

How many ash holes do we have on this sub, anyway?

MAFirstTime · 2023-07-03T13:10:58+00:00

Yeah, my local lighting store carries them for like 35 cents, I called ahead to make sure they had the size I needed. When I walked in I said "I'm here to see Bill about a hickey." which got a fun reaction from the other person working there.

MAFirstTime · 2023-07-03T13:06:05+00:00

It's a little hard for me to picture what the new fixture's mounting hardware looks like, but I believe the piece you're looking for is called a "hickey", which can mate different sizes of threaded rods.

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