Finishing Up Lining Paper

I ran out of lining paper during last weekend’s work but amazingly the place I buy from shipped me some new rolls so I was able to finish hanging the paper this weekend. I get the paper from https://www.paper-hangings.com. They sell traditional wallpapering materials which is good because I want to make sure I’m getting real paper and not a lining paper with vinyl added. I get the remaining paper up and then apply another coat of diluted paste over the paper to size it for the real wallpaper. The size acts like a primer that hopefully makes the real wallpaper adheare to the wall better.

With the paper up I take some time out for a few non-home tasks. First I look at a commercial building for sale. This building was built in the early 1900s and is a classic Victorian storefront with downstairs commercial and a living space above. The downstairs is fine, but the listing had no photos of the upstairs so that’s a sign that it’s not in great shape. Also I had spoken with the previous business in the downstairs about why they left and they said that there were shady tenants living above them flushing syringes down the toilets.

Upstairs condition

Making my way upstairs, it’s as I expected with things in pretty rough shape. Not terrible in that there’s nothing majorly trashed, but it’s got the classic problem of many years of rentals with barely any upkeep besides another coat of white and/or purple(?) paint. Lots of cracked plaster too, but the good thing is that everything is pretty much original with molding and doors. I’m interested, but like many Wildwood properties it is hard to get an exact answer as to what the status of the property is. I’ll keep this one on the back-burner and see if the seller is serious about their listing.

Another building I check out is the St. Ann’s Rectory on Pacific Avenue. This building is slated for demolition and although we tried to persuade the developer to spare it, he’s going to move forward with new construction on the site. He did let us make a final pass through the building to salvage anything we wanted. The place is pretty much picked clean from previous demolition sales along with the fire department doing emergency training, but there are a few glass doorknobs that I grab as momentos.

Boarded up arched entry door.

Under the Rectory.

Interesting that this plaster has both wood and metal lath. Was this common?

Back at the house the rest of the work is smaller tasks such as painting the tub another coat of green. Also I paint the vent pipe, HVAC outlet, and junction box. These colors are intended to match the wallpaper and I use linseed oil paint for them.

Darker green for the tub.

Checking the paint colors with the wood and wallpaper.

Painted pipe and HVAC outlet.

Lastly, I mess around with the woodwork. The door and window molding both get a coat of shellac to seal their stain. The built-in is more sanding and finding missing stained spots. I touch this up with more stain and that will need to wait a week to dry before I shellac that. The beadboard is almost done with applying the final coats of Waterlox. For the last coat I am using their matte sheen which goes on last over 2 coats of normal glossy sheen Waterlox.

Shellacked woodwork.

Eventually this built-in will be ready to shellac.