I've lived in old houses all my life and have been in the carpentry/remodeling business working under a 50 year carpenter for about six years now. Probably though, most of the advice I will summarize here has to do with what I've learned on my own. I've lived in the unliveable and lived in the luxuriously restored. First off, like others have said here, take a breath. Seems to me you have a good idea of your financial health and have a realistic view of what you need to do to survive -- most importantly, not getting sucked into the disease of needless consumerism. In summary here's how you should look at the issues in your house: 1. Basic functionality: a) will you stay warm enough in the winter to survive? b) will you have working plumbing to enable basic sanitary functions? c) will your structure be able to keep the elements out? That is, wind, water and cold. Why do you need your roof stripped now? If it isn't leaking, you can hold off probably until spring for that, you may, depending on the number of layers and the allowance of code, be able to get by with another layer for now if you have to. You mention that the bathrooms need gutting. That's a large and expensive project to undertake, do you need to do that now? What does the upstairs bath need to be operable? At least so that you can use the lav and the toilet? Are there major plumbing issues or are these more cosmetic issues? I'd say that your major issues are: Fix the plumbing issues if that is what is occuring in the baths. Improper or poorly functioning plumbing can lead to sanitary issues as well as further damage to the interior walls and floor of the rest of the house, much less more plumbing damage. Get some quotes and plan on doing that, do some research and see what you can attempt yourself. Make some friends who know plumbing. If the bathroom is gross and the flooring and walls are gross, rip out and replace on your own, recover the flooring with luan and sheet vinyl, paint the walls, fix the plumbing. Now you've got a usable bathroom with a little elbow grease and maybe a couple paychecks. You can go back later and do the real fix-up that you want. Is the wiring dangerous or just outdated? An electrician once told me when doing some wiring at one old house I lived in long before I got into the trades, "I always tell people to leave well enough alone, never touch old wires and don't rewire when you don't have a problem." Old wiring has old insulation that will flake and fall off if touched. Better to leave well enough alone. If it looks intact, works well then you are fine. Yes, we'd all love a re-wired house, but the cost is prohibitive and the payback isn't always so great. Removing plaster and scraping paint, removing old flooring and the rest will stir up a lot of lead and possibly asbestos, if you plan on having children, delay that until most of the rough work is complete. If you have children now, cordone off the areas you are working in with plastic taped securely around. Use a "zip-door" to enter and re-enter the work area. Since you are starting from scratch in a sense, I'd suggest also that you consider integrating more energy efficient design techniques with your design ideas. You could consider installing a solar hot water heater, or possibly a combination wood/gas fired furnace. You don't mention what kind heating system you have. Focus on: 1. Sanitation 2. Structural 3. Comfort 4. Aesthetics In that order. Of course oftentimes these four will converge, but when looking at a project from a budget point of view, you often have to ask yourself, "what can I live with, how can I live with it and for how long?" Oftentimes you can make small fixes now and as your budget, knowledge and ideas ripen over time, you'll have the flexibility to approach things from a different, wiser perspective. Unlike the stupid fix-it shows on teevee, remodeling and improving a house is in fact a long term process that requires a lot of forethought, planning not only in design, but choice of materials, relation of cost to function/value and of course, investment in sweat or dollars. The best fertilizer for that planning/development process is prudence, which often is exercised only when we have to.

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.

Well we finally decided to drain the spa and began checking things... SURE ENOUGH, big hole around one of the jet/return fittings. The PB put some putty on that and the plaster guys will be back Monday to permanently fix it. So far, so good... Oh and I checked the bottom where I thought it felt mushy and it felt fine. So I think it was just the way it felt with the water and all the bouyancy and what not.. I guess time will tell if there is another leak still to be found..

Hi, anyone from Vancouver Canada? I have been trying to find a source for a Corian solid surface shower pan but am having a difficult time finding one. I've called a few bathroom supply stores and went to a few Home Depot and they only have the ugly acrylic ones and only in white, Corian.com does not even mention this type of product so why is that? If it's such a great product why wouldn't they advertise it?