Upgraded to Mavericks and installed new iphoto but can't get iphoto to work

Question

I have not been able to open my iphoto library with the current version after installing Mavericks and purchasing/installing iphoto 9.5
Here's the system info: iMac (from Dec. 2007)
2.8 GHz Core duo
4 GB SDRAM
OS  X 10.9.1 (as of yesterday)
Iphoto 08 (7.1.5)   lived on a network drive ( Lacie cloud drive) shared between a pc and a mac.
Upgraded to 9.5 yesterday
I used time machine backup before installing Mavericks and proceeded to try to upgrade iphoto. However, I did not make a backup of my system after this installation and before I installed the new iphoto. Does Time machine backup iphoto files located on a network drive? Does it matter that the backup was made with snow leopard and not Mavericks?
I followed instructions on a thread indicating that iphoto Library upgrader 1.1 should be used to prepare my old library prior to opening with iphoto 9.5. 
When I double-clicked the upgrader it gave me this message:
Your library can open with the current version of iPhoto and does not need to be prepared with this tool.
I noticed that the iphoto icon has already changed from orange to blue.
OK- great! So I go to the freshly installed iphoto and try to open my library and get this message:
The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto.
Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process for very large libraries may take an hour or more to complete.
Alright, so I click the upgrade button and I get the beachball of death for about 15 minutes and then see a message that says:
Examining photo library- Examining with the beachball of death goes on for another 10 minutes and then iphoto just crashes and closes.
Back to searching through threads- Ah-  try option + cmd while opening iphoto to rebuild the database but then get this message AGAIN:
The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto.
Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process for very large libraries may take an hour or more to complete.
And so, the cycle continues....
After reading through a few other discussion I discovered that the iphoto library should have been on a drive formated as Mac OS extended (journaled)
So- I format an external harddrive as Mac OS extended (journaled) and proceed to copy the iphoto library (234 GB) onto the external harddrive and after about 30 minutes I received this message:
The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “iPhoto Library” already exists. I click OK and everything stops and shuts down.
Is it possible to get rid of Mavericks and go back to my original iphoto 08 using the time machine backup? If so, should I then use the upgrader before installing Mavericks and the new iphoto?
At this point I have no clue how to proceed.  I am trying not to panic but this process is starting to drive me a little bananas and my brain is slowly, but surely, melting away. 
Please help save my sanity. Please.
Thank you.

Answer 1

The problem is the library has been damaged from sitting on the Network Drive, and frankly, returning to the old OS won't change anything, nor will downgrading iPhoto. You're going to have this issue once you try and move the Library, or update it in any way, and - even if you stick with the old version of iPhoto, you're going to start having issues just saving edits, sharing and so on.
So, you're between a rock and a hard place.
I've no idea if TM backs up material on a NAS, but I do know that it can be set to back up externald rives. I'm somewhat surprised that you don't know, as this is your back up system that you created and the easiest route out of this situation. NOw there's only one way to find out.
So, my first effort would be to try restore the Library from TM to the correctly formatted drive:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4927?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
will help with that.
If that doesn't work or is not possible, your next effort is to try rebuild the Library to the correctly formatted drive:
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
If that doesn't work, then you're recovering the masters from the Library and starting over from scratch.