" -What a difference the dry wall makes huh? You've got most of it up throughout the house?"

" -Pretty much. We've got a little bit more to go upstairs but we're, for the most part, covered up."

" -Yes. So we are going to be looking in the kitchen a little later to talk about building cabinets in place. What's going on in this room?"

" -This is gonna be the formal library. We've got a Florida ceiling cabinets and we're going to face the cabinets out in Cyprus, which is a natural wood that grows locally here."

" -Yes. I love Cyprus. Look at the graining in this board right here. But the The actual back of the, of the cabinets or the shelves rather. It's just a--"

" --It's just a--"

" --plywood?-- "

" --right. Any inexpensive 4-inch plywood and all the shelves will be inexpensive 3 quarter--inch plywood because it's all to be painted where the outside facings will be natural."

" -So the Cyprus will be natural?"

" -That's right."

" -Oh good. Well can we see any of the plaster works still going on?"

" -Sure, let's go upstairs."

" -Ok so this is the southwest corner of the bedroom."

" -Right. This is the master's bedroom and the dry wall is all up and you can see we're, we're trying to replicate. This is a poor man's plaster. "

" -I was gonna say. I'm, I'm used to seeing dry wall, you know, joints taped and spotted but you're ending up here up to the ceiling. Everything looks like it's a plaster job."

" -Well we tried to scrape it like that. When this dries we can come back tomorrow and then go back in between them--"

" --Yes?"

" --and then it sort of gives you a flat level surface and then when that dries you can come back and sand it out and it looks like it's one solid, you know, plaster-like finish--"

" --Plaster finish."

" -Yes sir."

" -Yes. Well not only have you got the advantage of price in your favor, but you also have that look when you go to paint the wall of having a nice plaster surface as opposed to the, the paper that you get on the dry wall."

" -Now last week you were working on the cornices downstairs, in the parlor. Here you're, you're almost finished I guess."

" -Yes. What I'm doing now is using a 3-coat [unk] work to tie the original corners into the dry wall to give us a nice, solid finish so we won't have to worry about expansion and contraction of the 2 different materials."

" -Yes. Now I've always thought that the biggest problem you have there is that you're gonna end up with a crack where the dry wall ends and the plaster begins."

" -What we do is have the dry wall contact to comeback and tape and finish all of this work that I'm doing now. They'll be applying the finish coat soon."

" -Now Moby why have you kept the dry wall back 8 or 10 inches from the cornice?"

" -The dry walls have flat surface and the cornice is a little bit irregular so--"

" --Yes.--"

" --we've made the transition with this metal lath while the diamond lath, which is usually used in, in real plaster applications is a pretty rigid backer, isn't it? For the plaster? "

" -Right. Pretty rigid. The, the gypsum plaster will actually expand and contract just like the dry wall because the dry wall's gypsum also."

" -Sure? Now Ralph, how long do you have to wait before you can put the finished coat on?"

" -About 24 hours and then we can come back to the final coat."

" -Now Rusty, is that straight dry wall joint compound out of the can?"

" -Yes sir with just a little bit of water added and mixed with an electric drill to make it easier to run on the ceiling and smoother."

" -So you shake up that 5-gallon jug with a little bit, maybe like a pint of water?"

" -Yes sir."

" -Hey, is this really gonna keep it from cracking? Coz you've got a joint here now between old plaster, new brown, a brown coat, and dry wall ceiling. -Well by itself, if the dry wall had budded the plaster, it could have a tendency to crack. So the, the tape will actually prevent that but by keying in the water lath behind the dry wall, we hope that we'll really tie it all together."

" -Well that's interesting, the use of both materials, especially behind you over here on the wall where he's doing a street job so you'll end up with what will in effect be a cheap plaster finish."