"My general contractor offered me to hang a drywall on top of plaster but I dont see a value of this." Oh for the love of God - I wish if people didn't know how to do something or it was outside their range of expertise they would just say so and not propose these ridiculous things that do more harm than good. So he adds more thickness with a layer of drywall - what does he do with the trim then? Rip it out and install skinny cheap modern trim from Home Depot (some do exactly that - ugghhhh) Sorry OP I just had to vent there!! Ive been looking at old houses to buy and theres no end of goofy, futzy things that people have done to them. Im glad you saw the folly of that esp in such an old house. Like fine antiques, as time goes on people more appreciate the old things - esp if well maintained in original condition. You may want to go over to thehistoricdistrict.org, which has many old house lovers on the forum including professionals who can advise in great detail about how to do plaster repair. Especially with your age of house - you might want to confirm what type of plaster you have . There was an earlier type of lime plaster with different composition with materials you might have to hunt for (but certainly are obtainable at reasonable cost) The later type of gypsum based plaster used in early-mid 1900s - materials not available at big box - I think Ace had a type of patching plaster that can work but the plaster of paris that they (and home depot) sells is not good - sets up way too fast and hard. Otherwise any small-mid size city should have a building supply store where they carry the more specialized types of materials - while traditionally plater walls had a three coat system, for repairing cracks Ive just used plain patching or veneer plaster - if a bigger hole you can get a rough coat plaster for first layer and veneer plaster for the top layer. Use a bonding agent on the edges of the old plaster and the lath to help the new plaster adhere well to the old. There's various other techniques for bigger areas and different types of situations - and other people will have their favorite methods and materials (some use drywall compound but IMHO if you have extensive repairs its best (and considerably cheaper) to get the real stuff. Re very fine surface hairline cracks - ignoring those works the best! In a nutshell - plaster repair is exactly the kind of labor intensive but very doable thing that a typical home owner can learn to do, and do well.

Hey All... I wasn't directing it specifically at graywings...but I have seen it so often here that something just finally got to me. I do fiction writing at an ancient history site, and understand that misspellings do occur...a lot of my stuff is written spur-of-the moment at 2A.M., but there I do catch most of mine which are mainly due to speed and keyboard layout. Many, many people here are quite knowledgeable about restoration, so I guess I expect higher standards--earlier that day, I was at a professional restoration site, and saw so many errors that I thought 'there is no way I'd use these people'. The other thing which gets to me is computer-speak and technology--and the fact that a lot of people just assume that since it is high-tech, it is going to function perfectly. Well, that is not true with things like spell-checkers; they are only as good as the person who uses it: it will offer suggested spellings which it thinks are alternates to your typed word, but it also was created by people who assume that if you see the proper word, you will know which one to pick. With our current educational system, the time will soon come when they will likely give up any pretence to grammar or spelling at all and give in to text usages. Finding out that cursive writing is no longer taught in public schools also contributed to my despair--when I heard that, my mouth literally dropped open in shock and it took a bit for me to collect myself. I already knew our math skills were woefully behind the rest of the world, but the fact that we won't even be able to read something not printed was truly astounding. My mother saved a couple of my penmanship books from elementary school as I found out going through her effects, but I should have known back in '98 when I wrote something out at work and one of the other people couldn't figure out even from context that the letter I used to start one sentence was a capital 'Q'.

It's a basic two gang box. The sides are flat, so this should work - right? The wings that tighten with screws probably won't work because the wall is too thick - they can't slip behind it. I have thought about putting a magnet on a string and going fishing for the metal thing that held the box in previously.

Yes, I have done some research, explored the house more and I have started the prep work for re plastering. I was able to fly through the worst of the peeling paint in the old closet using a sharp paint scraper, and have feathered the edges for what is currently sticking. I am going to use a plaster weld/ cement bonding adhesive to ensure good adhesion for the patch work I will use a good sealing primer for the painting. I will just be diligent about removing the loose stuff. I will need to reinforce the attic in places as they used 1x6 backing for seams on the plasterboard, without proper blocking in places. I don't want more cracks when I go up there in the future. Found a condensation induced leak in the attic, leaking onto a covered roof. The list of work gets bigger and bigger. Just need to pace myself. I guess I just needed some encouragement and confirmation for the plan. Been watching this guy on youtube and have learned a lot about plastering. Not so intimidated anymore.