Help! How do you hang a picture on these plaster walls!!

Dumb question:  we're trying to hang some pictures, finally.  We can't figure out how the heck you drill/hammer through the plaster.  this is quite entertaining though, watching DH pretend he's a handy man...  I call him the anti-handy man!  He's measured everything up really well though.  Any advice would be helpful!

I have plaster walls as well & use Floreat Hooks to hang pictures http://www.picturelinks.co.uk/cgi-bin/ccp51/cp-app.cgi?usr=51F807890&rnd=5323036&rrc=N&affl=&cip=&act=&aff=&pg=cat&ref=framing03&catstr=

http://www.govart.com/images/hwr_brasshook30LG.jpg

I used masking tape to mark an 'X', too, over the spot where the holes went in.  Saves chipping the plaster.  One of Andrew's workie friends taught us that.

we use those little white plastic hook things, that have three metal prongs... bought them in focus.  for something really heavy (ie bird cage) we drilled (being careful to avoid wiring) and screwed in hooks.

How big are these pictures?  If they're relatively small then the little 3 nail gold picture hooks should be easy enough to hammer into the wall.

If you're putting up something big and you need to drill into the wall such as you might do to put up a curtain rail or something that needs a deep support
then you may need a powerful drill or you won't get anywhere.  When we put up our living room curtain pole it above the top of the window (obviously) going into the very hard lintel so we had to rent a super-duper hammer drill (I think it was 24V or stronger), went straight in like butter!

I have problem walls, too. My old cottage has nearly 2-foot thick walls. Yeesh. Anyway, my BF drilled holes and used wall plugs for me and everything was fine!

One word of warning:  It's not unknown for cables to be buried only just below the plaster on some walls, particularly old places which have been rewired more recently.  (Yes, our recommended electrical codes say that the cables should be either at least 2 inches below the surface or protected with a metal plate, but that doesn't always happen.    ).

It's best to avoid nailing anything either directly above, below, or horizontally in line with any outlet, wall light, or switch, if possible.