Tedious floor removal

Saturday, February 23, 2008

We started taking up the floor this weekend. As you see the floor upstairs was completed prior to adding any walls - grrrrrrrrrrrrr. OH, and that dark area was mold-yuk - this is the back of the bathroom wall.

We went back and forth about whether to attack this from above or below (we needed to find out why the floor bounces-ummmm look how far apart the joists are!) - called a buddy from up the street to take a look - weighed opinions and decided to go at it from above. Once again Lee used MY handy sawzall (I knew we needed it) and cut the boards between the two walls.

As we took the boards up I numbered them, although they probably won't go back quite in the same order. The lumber yard is attempting to fabricate a match as new boards are needed to fill in where the chimney was and we need to replace a few boards under a window where they were rotten. These are of course TRUE sizes so a larger board will have to be sized down. Hope the rest of the floors look this good where we don't have to rip them up.

We came upon a challenge at the door and still haven't resolved that issue. I took up the huge threshold and wondered why there was one installed to begin with-the wood continued between the rooms seamlessly. (and why did they paint that blue?)

We are not planning on tearing up the hallway until next year (and don't plan on taking up the floor there anyway) so I guess we will just nail it back down (sans blue paint) to hide the ugly seam. Looks better without the threshold, but don't know how else to handle it.
Yup, that's drywall down there under the floor. Very neat installation which looks like it was done back when the electricity was installed. The horrible textured ceiling below must have been added in the 80's and MUST GO. Which brings us to the end of the day and our next post........

Blunder-ful weekend!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Lee spent the morning putting scraps together to fashion a large walking platform as the floor was quickly disappearing.

Unfortunately, it was not close enough to him as he lost his balance on an especially tough nail. My back was to him as I diligently performed my duty as the official nail remover - it is a delicate job - then.....keeeerrrrrrrrrraaaaaassssssssssshhhhhhhhhh. Lee went down. Arms were on one side of the fan, and legs were on the other. The cross support is the only thing that saved him from a hospital trip! Thank goodness for those big ol' nails I was cursing earlier! I really wanted to take a photo from below with arms and legs through the ceiling, but he was really hurting and stuck and I just couldn't add insult to injury (for once).

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Not much else has been accomplished since the clean up. We intend to have the room finished by early May. I am beginning to worry.

Floor revealed

Saturday, February 16, 2008
I really wanted to title this something risque and crude...something to do with "wood"...but I'll keep my immature side to myself. Plus, my parents wouldn't like it.
Started the day at 8am with a trip to "The Vintage Source" - its like going into Gram & Pap's old house and barn. Can't let myself purchase too much since we still have furniture to get rid of and rooms to renovate, but its fun to poke and get ideas. I usually pick up a little something, here are this weeks goodies. Good thing its only open once a month!
Type Tray for the old fishing lures and shells (see the world's second most ugly rug in this pic-the worlds ugliest rug is on the upstairs floors)

Hitchcock style chairs (2 for $60) to go with the game table behind - sooooo they aren't authentic, who cares, they are sturdy, cute and cottage-y

and my personal favorite - the non plastic Yahtzee cup.

Then we high tailed it over to the Amish sawmill on Rt 236 - if anyone wants directions leave a comment. It was MUDDY, so will take photos of the machinery and stuff (no people!) next time. We ordered the 3 to 4" tongue and v-groove for the ceiling and should have it within 2 weeks. Cheap Cheap Cheap - but it is air dried instead of kiln dried - so we need to stick and cure it inside for a while. I want to paint it so chose poplar over pitchy pine. It was less than half the price of Lowe's or Home Depot. So, its not bead board...I don't care...its for the bedroom ceilings. Back then I think they would have chosen the less expensive alternative for the upstairs anyway. If I really want bead board it will go downstairs in the more public area. I think we will be happy with this tho. Its what would have been available 185 years ago, and is being made locally without electricity which pleases me too. We'll see how it turns out and then decide what to do on the walls. They can mill it as wide as 12" - I keep playing with the idea of putting it up on the walls horizontally using varying widths - but I think Lee is sold on the vertical wainscot with a thick cap.
We did all that, arrived home by 10:30, ate some brekkie, and tore out the carpet and padding. It went fairly quickly and here is what we found!

If only we didnt have to do anything but sand and clean it up - but alas, we have to shore up the joists underneath so it will all have to come up. Hope we dont ruin it. Also have to find something to match so we can patch up the old chimney hole. Another trip to the sawmill! Not sure what kind of wood it is. Our bedroom is heart pine, but that's in the "newer" part - this just doesnt look like pine. (This pic was actually taken Sunday after the baseboards came up).
Friends called and wanted to go out for dinner - so we bagged up the mess and put it in my Xterra (the dump mobile).

Bees, Mud Daubers, & Spooge - OH MY!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

I have not been in the mood to post lately - sorry to everyone who has been asking.

We took the plaster (which had been covered with drywall) off the ceiling this morning. Whoever put that up - we curse you! Some areas had 20 screws in less than a square foot. Next time we may just use the sawsall instead of chipping away at it. What a hard job! After that we stripped the lath from the walls and ceiling - keeping some of it in tact for "sticking" the air dried wood we will order from the saw mill next weekend. That went quickly.

Some of the housbloggers find such nice surprises in their walls - we found:

Honeycomb - which is quite ironic since one of the previous owners (George W. Imirie) was a master beekeeper. He did not keep bees on this property as this was only a weekend home. Sadly, he passed away in September. There was recently an article in the Washington Post about him. Wish we had a chance to meet him - what a life he led!



Mud daubers nests,
dirt,
and only what I can call
SPOOGE - yuk. We took off all of the lath strips today and cleaned up the hidden treasures.








I'll add photos later of the large beams and trunks of trees that were used for support beams. There was evidence of some termites in the past, but nothing damaging. We have a call in to the bug guy just in case - I would feel better getting the ground treated since this side of the house sits almost on the ground.


Anyway, we were rushing to get to a party, so we cleaned up the slats and here they sit waiting for a bonfire. There is still a huge stump under the pile we have been trying to get rid of.

Electrical Panel

Sunday, February 10, 2008
I'm still playing catch up on posts. Finally having a snow day today so maybe I will make some headway. I'll try to back post some projects we did in Summer 2007 and the Ernesto episode which broke us in to waterfront living (ie "why did we buy this place on the water......", "there's geese swimming in my yard", "I thought after the tornado I wouldn't be cutting up any more trees", etc).
Exhausted as we were, we cleaned up last night and went to a party down the street at the old "Victory Bar". Old farts that we are, we only lasted through 2 or 3 Bud Light 10-oz cans (the OFFICIAL drink of the 7th District) before giving out. Met some people who grew up across the creek from our house - they told us we had the prettiest spot on the creek. Boy, we really needed to hear that!
Spent all of Sunday morning and well into the afternoon flipping on and off the breakers in the electrical panel, hooking up radios, using the circuit tester, and trying to map out the spider web of circuits in this house. We have one large panel strategically placed abutting a window in the family room (its a beauty). Hope to conceal it with curtains some day, or maybe build it into a bookcase/wall unit.

Also have a sub panel BEHIND the hot water heater, which we want to relocate when we put in the breezeway/garage (hope we can still afford to).

I'm sure there was a reason for the placement of this, along with why we only have one circuit for the 3 bedrooms and 1 bath upstairs - except for one outlet in one bedroom, but including one downstairs outlet in the family room. Why do we have "the mystery" breaker - took hours to realize it wasn't hooked up to ANYTHING. Why there is a single circuit for that lone outlet upstairs that is not on the upstairs breaker? Why is my furnace emergency switch ABOVE my upper kitchen cabinets? I'm sure it made sense in the "wayback" (it was probably the easiest solution). Anyway we decided now was the time to do this so we wouldn't get zapped!

Another use for closet hardware

Saturday, February 9, 2008
Morning
So here is the room prior to lath removal.

Also had to showcase Lee's recycle talents - necessity is the mother of invention, right?! We needed someplace to clip our lights - look what he did with the old closet hardware and an outlet strip! This is NOT like him at all, he's Mr. Buyit. I am so proud!

I miss being plastered!

OK, so that's not a very original title....but I seriously miss the plaster. There was just no way to save it.

We divided and almost conquered today. I crawled up into "my" attic with big plastic bags, a hoe for reaching into the low spots, and a dustpan (courtesy of neighbor Joan - we wasted the better part of an hour searching for ours) and while in an almost fetal position did my best to bag up the blown in insulation over the bedroom. I misjudged one of the joists and my palm found a screw - had to scream for some alcohol to be passed up to me - maybe we should have gone for tetanus boosters before beginning this project. It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did, but there's no room for arms or legs up there. I also had the help of a big nasty fly. I noticed that there was no insulation on the angled parts of the ceiling, hundreds of mud dauber nests, and found some dampness on the north side where we have always had problems with the shingles when it was windy - and it is VERY windy here. We actually have a guy coming to do an estimate this week for a metal roof, good timing.

Here is the end result:



So while I was sweating in the attic (don't think the insulation is doing any good anyway) Lee was working on the plaster walls. As I said, a lot if it crumbled, but other areas had drywall liquid nailed to the plaster, or were repaired, probably in the '40's, and weren't quite so easy to remove. There was some water damage and many "sand" repairs. The original plaster is full of red horse hair. I saved a big piece but not sure why. We didn't get to the ceiling, maybe tomorrow. We started about 11 and finished around 4:30, loaded up the Xterra with the heavy bags - the tires may pop - and proceeded to the landfill 25 miles away....which was closed. And its closed on Sundays, too. Bummer. We are tired. Will get a dumpster for the next room. I really didnt think there was going to be as much to cart away as there was.