Q. We just bought our first house, an American Foursquare, dated 1917. It has been vacant for several years and the interior is not in the best condition. We'd like to gut it to get rid of the sagging ...

A former owner had wallpapered the ceiling of my bathroom. I’ve scraped it off but in places, the plaster has come off all the way down to the cement. To patch it, should I use joint compound or ...

Q Our plaster ceilings are cracked in a couple of places in different rooms of our house. What does that mean, and how do we fix it? AWell, it probably doesn’t mean much. Plaster is brittle, and what ...

Q. We're buying a house that is probably close to 100 years old. It has been vacant for the past several years and needs a good amount of cleaning up and fixing up. One thing we're concerned about is ...

If Beth Cayre had to move, she would regret leaving the dining room ceiling, with its plaster cherry blossom branches hand molded by ceramics artist Matthew Solomon. And who could blame her? The ...