More Lathe and Plaster

This little smile is what makes it all worth while. Bailee wondered why there was so much dirt inside the walls. She was quite intrigued by it all. Her parents owe me big time because I wouldn't let her take a jar of it home to "keep forever".

Things always look better after the cleaning lady has been in for the night!

Oct 18 - Lathe and Plaster

One of the funnest things about old houses is the lathe and plaster that usually comes with it. So in the days before the glorious invention of sheet rock we used to have lathe and plaster. See all those little pieces of wood across the wall studs? There are hundreds and hundreds of them along a wall. Nailed to the studs then covered by, you guessed it, plaster. Which is really after a hundred years of settling just gritty dust that gets everywhere once you start pulling the little pieces of wood off. 

There are a couple of ways, the slash and burn way and the pick and peck way to pull down the walls. The slash and burn is great if you've had a bad day and need to work off some steam, the pick and peck doesn't raise as much dust, is a bit slower, but still pretty effective. 

So pick up that sledge hammer and break all of the wood down the middle in between each of the studs.  Then you can just pretty much pull the broken pieces off. And wahla you have nice clean studs, but a huge mess that has to be taken out to the trailer.

Or pick up your handy dandy prybar, slip it between each of the slats and pull them off. It really goes faster than you'd think, just keep plugging away and before you know it you will have a wall down, then it's on to the next wall... and the next wall ... and the next....

 This is a picture of the little room downstairs before the front room wall was torn out. You can see the chimney and the heater vent that ran along side of it. So really one wall down many many to go at this point. Outside of the peace and quiet little room you can see the mess that pulling off three or four layers of wallpaper, and lathe and plaster can make. This is a view looking under the stairs and into the kitchen. Just wait until that's all opened up when that wall disappears. Oh ya, things are getting interesting.

Ready for the HVAC and big roots

Today while Roger put the plumbing in so we'll have a kitchen sink, and Dave worked on making sure we have more three-way lights than anybody in the neighborhood I got ready for the HVAC guys to come in next week. All of the pieces of wood that we've been saving to Recycle, extra tools, and supplies had to be moved to the garage which had to be cleaned out first. Check and done. The downstairs is now ready for the new furnace. Look at all that open space through there. And the spaces for the kitchen windows. Roger got the back door removed and covered over. It is a darling door with an oval window. Love it. Really want to use it like a sliding barn door upstairs.

And see those roots? Greg dug them out as much as he could, but more have got to go. It doesn't look like it has damaged the foundation too much other than rotting out the boards, but it still all has to go. Anybody wanna build some muscle with a wedge and sledge hammer? We'll only charge $2 a swing. The winner gets a used gas stove!

And those goofy guys at the back door yep they're the ones doing all the work. Can you believe no swearing on this construction site? Roger is a good influence on us.

All sorts of fun things

We've found all sorts of fun things while demolishing the little house on center street. They used lots of newspapers in many different ways, as insulation, floor lining, wallpaper you name it. We found a piece of a box that held dog, cat and fox food. I didn't even know they made fox food. Were they pets, or did you just put it on the back porch to feed wandering homeless foxes? We have racoons that eat cat food but I don't think I've ever seen a fox around here.

But the very best was when we found the strips of paper that had little sentences written on them. I'm pretty sure that they were written by Dave's mom when she was helping the grand kids learn to read. I think I recognize her handwriting. Very tender.

The most recent newspapers were from 1989 and the oldest, that I've looked at - they're all just sitting in a pile waiting for attention - was from 1947. It had a front page article about the Nipponese. I didn't even know that you could use that word let alone print it in the newspaper. And even colored comics, very nice.

Anybody know how to flatten out old wobbed up newspaper? I'm thinking that a craft project could come out of these finds.

No somking

While we were tearing out one of the leanto's we found some hieroglyphics that were kind of amusing. I don't know if you can read this or not but it says "No somking Mert Underwood". I'm not sure who Mert was, or if he was telling his kids not to smoke, as in no smoking, signed Mert. Or if his wife was telling him that he couldn't smoke out there. Maybe it was a good thing that the porch ended up being enclosed. But winter here gets pretty cold if you have to smoke outside.

Dead animals

So every old house has it's little quirks and ticks that make it unique right? Well the little house on center street is no exception to the rule. While vacuuming out some old insulation after tearing out a wall (between the kitchen and stair room) I clogged the hose. Yep. I tried to suck up a dead bird, and not just any dead bird, one without a head (which I never did find). Wonder where that came from. It was inside a wall. Eeek!

That and a few petrified mice helped make exploring more fun. But look how sweet it looks with the kitchen wall out, everything will be so open and cheery. And so glad that I can  sleep at night knowing that there aren't any old walls with dead things lurking in them. I have to apologize to the neighbors though. They say that now that we don't have such an inviting homey place for little critters that they are all moving into their garage. Tyler has become the great white hunter of mice. Alisa says that he's catching two to three a day. Again I apologize but I have to admit that it's much nicer at night to not hear their little tappy toes tipping through the old heat ducts. Silence is sometimes a very good thing.

But I still don't know about that bird. No head? What's up with that?

The kitchen dream

Stella and I got the kitchen plans over to Lowes today to see what they come up with. This is what we are dreaming of when we think kitchen in the little house on center street. Sans the arched kitchen windows, the ceiling isn't tall enough. I wanted 4 foot windows, Roger wanted 2 foot ones. We compromised at 3 foot ones. And they were a booger to frame. Like I know, because Roger did it all, but I grimaced when I saw what he had to do to make space in that wall. But it will all be worth it. It will, right Roger?

This is the East wall, won't that glorious morning sun be divine through the new windows? Not that I'm ever up that time of day, but I hear that morning light is the best.You can see in the picture with the stove where Roger had to pull out the brick, layers of wallpaper (more about that later) plaster, sheetrock, corkboard etc etc etc. I was gone that day or I totally would have helped. It was done when I got home. That guy does not know how to stop once he gets going. Did I say that those windows are going to be so lovely? All three of them.

By the way, if you know anybody who'd like a wood burning stove send them our way. There's a fan in it and for a potbellied shaped little cooker its not to bad looking... but she's got to go. And this is what will be in her place. What an upgrade.