I couldn’t remember if I made resolutions last year, so I went back and found last year’s New Year’s Eve post which reminded me we were still neck-deep in the move and I was pretty busy thinking about how if Paul were to die suddenly I could move back to my old house. That was not the right head-space for making resolutions.
I do have a resolution this year, and it’s to put up wall art. I have put up three things total, all on nails that were already in the walls when we moved in. I have not put in a single additional nail, because I don’t know which walls are horsehair plaster (it’s most of them, but some renovations allegedly were done with sheetrock), and I also don’t know if we have the kind of horsehair plaster walls that do okay as long as you’re gentle / use special horsehair-plaster-coddling techniques, or if we have the kind where you try to hammer in a nail and a baseball-size chunk of the wall falls in powder to the floor, and then as you look on in despair, a crack begins a slow gradual spread from the chunked place outward across the rest of the wall. One of the kids rocked an upholstered chair too hard and it bonked into a wall and left a deep shattery powdery dent, which makes me think it’s likely we have the latter kind of wall.
But Paul has said that if I tell him which wall art and where I want it, he will figure out the nails. And I think wall art is important—or at least, I know each time when I took DOWN the wall art when moving, the whole apartment/house suddenly felt bare and echoey and generic and sad. I think putting up my familiar wall art would make this house feel more like mine, and it seems like a bad sign that it’s been more than a year and I haven’t done it. So I would like to do that this year.
Happy New Year to you all!
I don’t know how they work with the antique plaster in your house, but I have had good luck hanging pictures with the command hooks that are designed for framed pictures. They have different weight ranges for different size pictures. Our house has plaster, too, and it has worked very well!
Uh, weirdly, I also came to suggest command hooks, and I am also Sarah E. Hi!
My solution to plaster walls is also Command strips or hooks.
We have lived in this (1937) house for over six years now and hanging things on the many-plastered walls still scares me. It would be lovely to do it! It’s a great goal! But prob will not happen here. We have also tried various command hooks and have also had some fail so now I’m scared of them too and so maybe I just need to move.
Agree on command hooks! I used to try and put nails in my pasted walls–NO MORE!
Happy New Year!
Paul probably already knows this, but there are a couple of tricks to hanging things on old plaster walls. If it’s lightweight and you want to use a nail, first use an electric drill with a bit just smaller than the nail to make the hole, then gently hammer the nail into the hole. For heavier items, same idea but use screws with wall anchors (those strange little plastic things that the screw goes into.) The package even tells you what size drill bit to use for making the hole.
You should be able to tell which walls are plaster by rapping on them. Just start knocking and keep moving your hand across the wall. Sheetrock will sound hollow, except over the studs. Plaster will sound more hollow. Or if a stud finder works really well, it’s Sheetrock.
Do you have moldings at the top of your walls? My mom’s old house had them, and she had hooks that hung on the molding, and then she used wire or fishing line to hang pictures and walk art from those hooks. So no nails in the walls.
It is nice to have things on walls.
Good luck with the wall art. That is exciting and the fact that Paul will manage and execute is even better.
I have that ongoing gut punch stuff going on too right now, as you did a year ago. We are about to put our house on the market and it is such a process. I know we are doing the right thing but the number of details and sequencing of events plus regular job and children who touch walls all day long is a lot to manage. We will get there though.
Happy new year! Seconding and thirding the command hooks and the fishing line. Those nails in plaster are a nightmare.
Lots of luck getting stuff on your walls this year. That seems like a good manageable goal to have especially in Paul is on board to help. It will certainly personalize the space for you.
I hang lots of photos of our kids on our walls. I did photo collages in black and white of each kid for their 1st bday and those decorate my living room.
Happy new year, Swistle! As resolutions go, this one is perfect and manageable.
This post reminds me that I desperately want a 1-year-post-move Reflection Post.
I would also love this! We are moving from our very old, very loved house in country to a smaller, newer home in a more convenient location next month and I am having Mixed Feelings.
I agree with Chris. And is there any way at all you can show us pictures without violating your own privacy? I, for one, promise not to do a reverse image search and track you down…
Oh, yeah: command hooks.
Command hooks are how things get hung up in my house on my timeline without having to ask for help, the locations of tools, or anything else. Do I wish to hang something on a concrete wall and have no idea where the special concrete-penetrating nailer is or how to use it safely? Command hook. Do I wish to hang something on a regular drywall wall without waiting for 1-87 weeks? Command hook. Do I want to have the Christmas stockings on a wall beside the tree instead of floating around the house? Command hooks. (And I used the 5-pound ones for that. They stayed up even with small presents inside.)
Have you written a 1 year anniversary reflection on how you feel about the new house? Have I missed it? We are still hemming and hawing about a move and I followed your posts with keen interest. I am curious how it feels to come out the other side with the dust settled on the move and if there is any lingering regrets or you drive past your old home and no longer feel like you’d rather live there.
I also have been thinking lately how much I’d love to hear your house thoughts one year later. Also I remember a post about some of the pros and cons of the house in winter (the icy driveway!). How did you like it in summer?
Yesssss! The people are clamoring, Swistle. ;)