Regarding the plastering answers:

Bryan:
The area is Hamilton, Ohio, which is 50 miles north of Cincinnati.
No one in the Cinci area is willing to come up here -- there is too
much work at this time and everyone is covered up.

IF someone could direct me to a human resource in the immediate
area, I might have a shot......  but I bet I'm going to end up doing this
myself.

Anne:
Thanks for the tip on the book.... I did exactly what you recommended
six years ago, after prepping the surfaces by scraping and sanding
away the old peeling paint and soft substrate.  After waiting a week,
which might not have been long enough, I sanded and painted, using a
high quality enamel by Graham.  (sp?)    Some of the fresh areas were
prepped first using B-I-N sealer, and alcohol based primer, some painted
directly with the enamel....... there is no discernable difference between the
two -- paint has peeled and walls are chalking in all areas........

But I'll try to locate the article and read up!  Never hurts to do that,
even if the skeptics say you can't learn something like that from
a book..... it's worth a shot.

Ken:
long story short as Drew would say -- old family business, falling profits,
long
hours, competing with undocumented sheetrockers, working for ignorant
customers, financial problems, father becomes ill,  son commits
mercy killing, kills himself next.   We actually lost TWO plasterers that day.
And I lost a lot of hope that any small family business was going to
weather the storms as many of us 40-somethings begin to get tired,  and
our folks (partners) begin to get sick........

Deb Bledsoe, sometime girl drywaller, soon to be girl plasterer ?  ;)