Zenpotter, I would never try to discourage you from repairing your bathroom walls with authentic lime putty, reinforced with horsehair, and smoothed out with a wooden float. My understanding is that 100 per cent lime putty takes about one year to fully cure. Regardless of what type of finish is applied, it will be necessary to fasten some sort of lath, such as wood lath, or wire lath, or rocklath, to the structure of the house. This is generally done with nails. You might have to actually remove more of the original plaster, in some places, to get good access to a wooden beam or stud, in order to securely attach the lath as needed. If you decide to use sheetrock as your backing for finish plaster, then it will be necessary to coat the sheetrock with an adhesive, after it is installed, but before the finish coat plaster is applied. However, if wood lath or wire lath is chosen, then you can apply a modern base coat plaster, pre-mixed. The pre-mix base coat will very likely contain chopped fiberglass to improve its strength, instead of horsehair. Since chopped fiberglass is not so good to breath, you should use come care when mixing this with water, to avoid raising a cloud of dust. Base coat plaster will set up in less than an hour, and can be coated with finish plaster the same day, if necessary. There is no great skill involved in application of base coat plaster. You have to mix it with reasonable care, and press it in place with sufficient force that it penetrates the lath, and binds firmly to the wall or ceiling. It needs to be troweled reasonably flat, and should be slightly below the intended surface plane, so there is some allowance for finish coat plaster. Base-coat does not have to be perfectly flat, or free of tool marks. Finish coat plaster is made from slaked lime and gauging plaster(aka plaster of paris). High quality type S finish lime, made from dolomite limestone, is easy to work with and gives good results. Finish coat plaster application is a learned skill, and not easy to describe in detail. As soon as the plaster is mixed, it begins to set up, and will harden in less than 30 minutes. You have to work fast, and there is a limit to the size, in square feet, that can be done in one mix. If the base-coat plaster is fresh, and still damp, then no misting will be required. If the base-coat has thoroughly dried out, it will rob moisture from the finish coat plaster, and interfere with both application and cure. Misting the base coat with water, before troweling on finish coat, will prevent this problem. If you decide to teach yourself how to apply finish coat plaster, my suggestion is to start with an area around one square foot, for your first trial. With initial success, you will gain confidence, and can begin make larger mixes, and plaster larger areas. The wall doesn't care if it gets plastered in small increments or in one fell swoop.

Last property I bought, agent got a $45k commission, no thank you or gift. I wasn't expecting a $1000 gift certificate, but I think a decent bottle of wine or fruit basket would have been nice. Plus, this agent was a pain in the @ss, almost killed the deal on a couple of occasions. I think if I were a realtor I'd have a very good floral arrangement delivered after they moved in, something in the $300 range. I also liked the idea of an artist's sketch of the new home. I knew someone was selling, and put him together with another agent I had worked with. She got a $58k commission on that one, solely because I had hooked her up with that guy. $58k for about 10 hours work is a pretty good payout (it was a very easy sale). I did not expect to share in the commission, but a small gift would have been nice. I'm not going to connect her with potential sellers in the future.

Is the picture above the foundation crack in question or is it a drywall crack? You said there is a diagonal crack in the foundation. When you say diagonal do you mean a stair step pattern? "Usually" this is not a crisis but could be the cause of the drywall cracking. Horizontal cracking in a foundation wall is the biggest concern. To me that picture shows a drywall crack, and the fact that the drywall has been repaired multiple times means they are fixing the symptom and not the problem. Cracks appear when there is movement. The structure of the house is moving causing pressure on the wall which makes it crack. Cracks do appear over doors and windows most often, I would look at the structure supporting this wall and see if there is any indication of movement. Maybe the structure is not strong enough also. Is the foundation crack below this wall in the picture? The foundation crack should be fixed with hydraulic cement they inject into the crack at high pressure. IF (and this is a big if) the hydraulic cement does NOT fix the problem then they need to beef up the foundation wall and possibly the footing of the foundation in that area, the wall is beginning to fail. I hope that the hydraulic cement fixes the problem though, start with that.

Here's an update, and thanks again for everyone's helpful replies! @M Miller What do you know, but your old post has appeared belatedly! Houzz can be mysterious sometimes. I did look up and bookmark your two suggestions for scratching posts, and thanks for that plus your other suggestions. That's a great idea about hanging things on your cabinet doors. I'm thinking of creating a whole wall of things outside of the kitchen for the cats to scratch including mounting some of the old cabinet doors they've already shredded since they are accustomed to them. We'll also be using a gate to keep them out of the new kitchen, and I might get a couple of those posts you recommended, too. @new-beginning The cat nail covers have fallen off easily the previous times they've been tried in our household, but I guess it's always worth a re-try if nothing else works. Our cats are older and wouldn't jump a baby gate, though they will likely climb around on the overhang side with stools under it and be on the counters when we aren't looking. Hopefully they won't jump from the counters into the kitchen. Thanks for the suggestions. @live_wire_oak Thanks for the info. We did in-depth research on all the woods you mentioned except for mesquite and settled on cherry due to a combination of factors including appearance. We've seen several cherry wood kitchen displays in person and are prepared for the color changes over time. The Waterlox multi-layer coating added a fake, plastic-looking orange that we didn't like which might be easier to understand if viewing in person. We did 6 coats on the sample, and 5 to 8 coats would be typically recommended for an application like this on cabinetry. By the way, my Waterlox sample did dry out and harden up since I wrote the original post, so it didn't stay gummy. I should have let it cure more than 24 hours between coats. We're planning to use the spare Waterlox on garage cabinetry and outdoor benches, so it wasn't a total loss to try it out. I've discovered since my original post that Waterlox actually has minimal tung and linseed oil composition and is primarily a synthetic varnish. @Brian Gannon Believe what you like, but my husband and I are halfway through a 4-room renovation and have been blissfully happy with the work completed thus far, we feel in part because we have taken time to explore some non-standard approaches. Cutting short research in this final stretch isn't an option for me personally, but I do appreciate your effort with suggestions. In summary . . . 100% tung oil might be something to try, and I plan to test it as it certainly is repairable plus simple in application. (Turns out Waterlox falls more into the category of a varnish than oil.) People who use 100% tung oil get best results by progressively thinning initial layers, sanding in between, and letting each layer cure up to a week for a minimum of 5 layers. Some woodworkers recommend 1 coat per week for a month, 1 coat per month for a year, and 1 coat per year thereafter. We had better be sure we like this before applying, because it is virtually irreversible. The CABINET PAINTING & REFINISHING - DIY & Pros offers resources for purchasing Milesi products in the United States. Shipments are temporarily halted due to COVID-19 crisis supply problems but should eventually resume. My wording about "2K" in a prior post is misleading. Conversion varnish (CV) is two-part (2K) as is the 2K Milesi waterborne coating discussed above. It's been recommended in this linked Facebook group that someone wanting to use the 2K Milesi clear coat as a brush-on eliminate the hardener portion and only use the varnish. Some chemical resistance and hardness will be compromised, but withholding the hardener will allow the varnish to dry more slowly so that it can be brushed. When mixed, it dries so fast that it must be applied via sprayer. Ilva, Renner, and ICA remain good coating options if Milesi's supply problems (from Italy) don't rebound fast enough. Sherwin Williams Industrial Coatings locations (different from your local SW paint retailer) offer the SAYERLACK® HYDROPLUS™ Waterborne Clear finish that is supposed to be good for cabinets. In talking to several pro painters, I learned that they often rely on the Sherwin Williams "water white lacquer" which isn't waterborne as far as I can tell and does yellow some in time but not as much as other lacquers. The Sayerlack (a Sherwin Williams sub-brand sourced from Italy) is a newer and presumably superior product in terms of low-VOC and non-yellowing waterborne composition.