Every time we undertake another repair or remodeling project with our old house, I’m reminded why I don’t do it myself. Yes, I’ll assist our carpenter/electrician or even keep an eyeball on the plumbers, but the earlier work we encounter always presents something inexplicable.
When we were stripping the walls and ceiling of the kitchen, for instance, Rick looked up and said, “I don’t like that.”
“Don’t like what?” I replied, looking at the weird angles of the two-by-fours running to the ridgeline. I could have as easily said, “Now what?”
“The roof’s not attached to the walls,” he replied. Oh? We both calculated it had been that way eighty years or so, however miraculously. “I’ll do what I can to strap it down.”
It’s a long list, actually, of guys who thought they knew how to fix things. But they weren’t pros or even skilled. Makes me wonder about a lot of the construction guys at work today. So I’ve become ever so grateful to turn to people who are truly capable. The best ones are worth every penny.
Jnana's Red Barn 
I feel your pain, horse-hair plaster has to be the worst I ever encountered in home renovation project nightmares….
Roof not attached to the walls? I wonder what theory of home construction gave rise to that decision? It seems unlikely to have happened by accident.
Most likely by stupidity. There may have been a few nails connecting the roof, but nothing structural. We’re hoping the straps do the job.