Another Outlet Move

As I move towards plastering the walls, the last batch of structural repairs is moving another outlet. This is the last of the 3 outlets that were moved by electricians from surface mount to in-wall mounting. As mentioned previously, the electricians used the old work boxes that hooked the boxes into the lath. This gets the job done, but it causes a few problems because after you saw through the lath, they become loose so the box doesn’t have a firm base. Also, the 2 clips used on old work boxes to secure against the lath are pretty weak. They don’t seem to offer a firm grip and also I’ve seen the clips snap since they are just plastic. So I follow the same repair where I move the box against the nearest stud and secure it using screws. This box is a junction so it’s got 3 wires all joining together which made it a little difficult to deal with. I don’t want to remove all the splices, so I end up cutting out the back of the plastic box to remove the wires and then rethread the wires back into the new work box. I get that secured to the stud and then start cutting a piece of drywall for a small patch.

Cutting out a drywall patch.

Once I get the repair sized to fit the hole, I add some plaster washers and then secure the patch with drywall screws. After that I put down some Durabond 90 and smooth over the cracks with nylon tape. There’s a small lump compared to the other repair. It seems like the thickness of this wall is a lot thinner compared to the exterior wall’s thickness. That repair was recessed while this repair is slightly bulging. Hopefully when I build up the plaster repairs to cover the washers, I’ll smooth out this bulge.

Repair screwed in.

Applying Durabond.

Small bulge.

With the plaster patch done, back to woodwork. The closet door is finished with 3 coats of stain. I’ll let that dry and do a light sanding next week. The main door needs 2 more coats of stain. First I sand away some of the blotches and apply another coat of stain.

Applying a second coat.

Finished door.

After the second coat dries, I do another coat of stain to try and hide any cracks and holes. Similar to the closet, I’ll let this dry and then do a light sanding next week before starting the shellac coats.

The rest of the work is just stripping molding. I use the combo of the SpeedHeater along with the more intense stripper followed by alcohol wipe downs to remove all the gunk. I get most of the windows done with just a few more parts of the door jam to finish up.

Window jam gunk.

Stripping the door molding.

Small plaster repair above the window.

Stripped window.