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 ...

Ken Wildes crouches next to a cardboard box and plucks out a rose hand-formed from clay. He holds the rose in his fingertips and points out the flaws. See how the petals are pressed together? A ...

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 ...

MILWAUKEE — It’s almost a reflex now when John Tesensky walks into a building. “The first thing I do,” he said, “is look up.” When you’re running a company that makes decorative ceiling tiles ...

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 ...

Before the arrival of prefabricated wallboard or “drywall” in the 1940s and ’50s, plaster was the material of choice for interior walls and ceilings in American homes. Portland cement plaster was ...