Do You Ever Hate Your House?

Do you ever hate your house?

Come on...admit it...sometimes you do - I know you do!!

I can honestly tell you that there are times I hate this house - and this past week-end has been one of those times.

Sometimes I think this house is doing these things just to drive me nuts, or insane. At the rate it's going it won't be long before it accomplishes the task.

Remember ALL that work I did prepping the original plaster walls and then skim coating them?

Well - look at what the house has thrown at me now.

A big set of cracks on the inside kitchen wall - the one that makes a small entry hall off the back porch.

Do you see them?!?!

I know, the picture is a bit fuzzy, but it was the best I could get. If you look close you will see a series of cracks about the size of a fist.

I did EVERYTHING the books, and web pages, said to do in prepping cracks in plaster. And now I have an even larger set of cracks in a different place! These are about 4" above the hairline crack that ran most of the length of the wall that I fixed.

I'm stymied... There is no indication that the wall is sagging, or the floor is sagging, or that there is a leak coming from the bathroom above. In fact, there is a support beam right under the area where the cracks are forming.

Am I being too picky? I mean, it is an old house, it is destined to crack. I just can't get it out of my mind that there is something wrong.

Also, remember that half-wall that separates the sink from the other half of the kitchen? As some of you know, it has pulled away from the main wall that forms the west side of the house. It has been this way since we've owned house, but you can see where the paint was contiguous.

There is no indication that this little wall was ever attached to the main wall (you can run a blade between the two with no resistance), but what has caused it to pull away?










Again, there is no indication of the outside wall pulling away from the main house; the floor isn't sagging; and there is no weight on this little wall.

What is going on here?

In this picture you can see the crack a little better. It isn't wide, no more than 5mm, and will be easy to fill with caulking.

When we go to put in new cabinets I'm thinking about removing this wall and rebuilding it. I know I could do it now, but I'm more concerned with what is creating the crack. I figure that if I at least caulk it, and paint it, I will be able to see if it shifts any more.

Just so you know, there is another spot in our house that is like this but way worse. I will cover THAT problem when I start working on that room.

Well, till next time....

Cheers!
Larry