You guessed it-more demo!

More walls than originally thought were cracked, loose and just not salvageable, at least within a reasonable time frame for resale.  So, on with the plaster and lath removal.  Don't worry, I'm not going "open concept", just taking down what can't be saved so the finished house is a quality finish.

Today's work:

The downstairs bedroom now looking into the living room:

More dutchlap as sheathing in the bedroom bumpout:

Peach bedroom looking into the living room

Dining room looking into the living room

Peach bedroom closet wall

Dining room wall that is shared with the kitchen.  That brick is the partial chimney I posted about in the kitchen.

SOOOO much lath!  Breaking it into stove lengths then bringing it home.  Burning some now as I type!

Kitchen ceiling, sans ceiling fan.  It wasn't worth trying to save, it was beyond disgusting.  It kind of fell during removal anyway so...

The dining room fan met a similar fate.  They were both disgusting, filthy and I don't think anyone would have even taken them for free.

I found this in the wall of the peach bedroom.  I think it fell from upstairs (another bedroom is above it), from the space next to a heat duct because it was in the same wall as a duct.  So far it's about the only cool old thing I've discovered aside from hardware.

The Demo Continues

Today I met the neighbor, who is older-maybe 80-90 years old.  She used to work for the family that owned the house as a house keeper when she was in high school.  I promised her that I would show it to her when it was done, and she was pretty happy.  A couple that lives around the corner stopped on their walk to say welcome to the neighborhood, and that they were glad someone bought it and was fixing it up.

Still working on removing any plaster and lath that is not longer attached to each other and all cracked.  I don't want big hunks of plaster falling on someone-that is not a good way to sell a house!  I spent most of the day going to get materials, doing a will call order and seeing if I could get a different layout for the kitchen.  I have 99% of the lighting picked out, the floor chosen and ordered, the bath floors picked and ordered-fun stuff like that.

Not many photos from today's work, but here is what I have:

Had someone out to check out the plaster and back up my opinions on what could be saved and what was just too far gone.  A couple more walls and a few ceilings are coming down.  On the upside, the lath isn't going to waste-we heat our house with wood so I'm breaking it down to stove length and using it as heat.  Waste not, want not, right?

This is basically the kitchen layout.  This replaces the ugly sink base and half plywood counter, wraps around to the wall that's shared with the dining room.  I am 99% sure this is how this part will go.  

Day Two, Part Two

Some more demo after lunch.  

This part is in the dining room-there are bump outs on both sides of the house.  The dining room is in one, the peach colored bedroom is in the other.  Interesting.  It's a brick veneer apparently, not a true brick house.  Looks like they used dutch lap as sheathing behind the veneer, at least here.

In the kitchen, this is a partial chimney that was taken down upstairs above the roof line.  It absolutely stinks of creosote and it's covered in it.  Apparently this house had a wood burning cook stove originally.  There is a chimney cupboard below, unfortunately this has to come out to make a kitchen that works.  I still can't figure out where they put the fridge in there (originally I think it was a monitor top in the corner where the dish washer is, but the wall there is only 21" deep so it wasn't there in modern times).

 This is in the kitchen.  It's a bell of some sort obviously.  Alarm?  Door bell?  I don't know.

Day Two, MORE Demo

Just a short post with a couple photos, just came home for lunch.

Demo of some walls with damaged plaster, have to cut carefully on the tops and sides, we will do that today later:

Check this cool lock out, it was on an inside bedroom door

This will not be fun to fix.  Most interior doors have locks-this one had a deadbolt.

More to follow-heading back to work shortly!

Closed! Day One Destruction

At a little after 10am I got the call from my lawyer's office.  It's recorded.  The Brick Bungalow is MINE.  Holy moly.  I own a project house.  Oooo boy do I own a project house.

So the electric company flaked out and decided to schedule me for next week.  So the gas company couldn't turn on the gas.  So the water company couldn't turn on the water.  So...no heat, no power.  It's gonna be a fun day!  It was 40 in the house when I turned the key.  The warmest it got was 41.  Woo-hoo.  Got there at about 10:30.  Started demo and just walking through to see what I really got myself into.  At about noon, the gas company came-that's when I found out they couldn't turn on the gas without the electric and water.  I had left a message for the water company, but they didn't get it so he also arrived, not too long after the gas guy left.  It was a day for interuptions.  Just as the water guy left, the contractor I had lined up came through to do a walk around and give me my final estimate on the roof and windows.

I did manage to get the kitchen ceiling tiles down and some plaster and lath in the two closets with water damage.

Kitchen.  Messy, messy!

And the closets:

Found some old wallpaper under old wallpaper.  This might be the 1920's era paper!

I believe the upstairs is all like this.  One room still has some funky paper (see the kitchen bedroom room), the hall has some that I peeled and the plaster there is unfinished too, and the other bedroom (the pink room) appears to be painted over some paper that didn't peel.

I also determined the stove in the upstairs bedroom is just set in place, so I'll be getting some help to remove it and get it downstairs without killing myself or the stove, and selling it.  Someone will want it-it's pretty neat.

Before Photos

So here we go, the Befores.

Outside:

Cute, right??

The Living Room:

Needs some plaster repair

And some new diffusers for the ducts

Dining room

Off of dining room, a bedroom

And the kitchen

Beautiful built ins that are staying

Bonus room, den, craft room, playroom...off the kitchen

Yup, ceiling needs repair

half bath also off the kitchen

mudroom/rear entrance

Going upstairs...

Upstairs hall

Upstairs full bath

Um...well...it worked I guess (shower curtain rod)

Cool soap dish is staying

This is a bedroom.  The kitchen is leaving

same room

another bedroom

same room, door is for this room

Lastly, another bedroom

Same room