Day 4: Saturday Adventures

We are on Day 4, and it's Saturday, January 14th.  After a coffee run, and getting a slightly later start, we make it on site.  I forgot to mention yesterday's nice, neighborly visit from a lady across the street regarding whether she could add something to our dumpster.  Pretty much right when we got to the site this morning, another neighbor was there to greet us, along with his mother, regarding disposing of the decrepit appliances hanging out on our porch.  We had a lovely conversation, were clued in on some patchy pieces of history about the place, and were very glad to know that the appliances were going to be sold for scrap metal instead of us having to transport them to the dump.

Our task/goal for today was to get the whole upstairs gutted: lofty, maybe.  Our first task of the day was to figure out how to get all the debris down the stairs without having to take loads down.  There are a couple problems with this: 1) the stairs are rickety and might not be super safe for heavy loads, 2) it's not a straight shot, and 3) the front door is at the bottom swings into the way, so conclusion, entirely impractical.  Gabe had an idea.  There is a sizable hole in the floor upstairs, we think because it was where a stove used to vent, but we aren't sure, because it is very weird.

Exhibit A:

So, my resourceful husband crafted this shoot out of plastic and reclaimed wood that had been used to keep the windows boarded up:

Boy, was it nice to have!  Our system worked pretty well for everything but lathe, because the nails on the little strips of wood chewed up and clogged the plastic.

The room that we worked with upstairs was a very small room.  But it was bright, and TEAL! so anyone who knows me knows I was happy about it.  Gabe started working on taking out the small closet in the back corner of the room.  This room had an extra layer of drywall over all surfaces of plaster, and as we later come to find out: lathe on the ceiling too, which we didn't expect.  I started work on removing drywall/plaster from the north and west walls.

Big pieces of drywall were coming off:

I was proud of myself. :)

I will also note that there was a spot where there was no plaster under the drywall under the window, probably from water damage, where just drywall covered it and had some rot or mildew underneath: yuck!!!

The lathe underneath basically fell off

The plaster upstairs was a whole different animal from the plaster downstairs.  It was exceptionally brittle and dry.  Here is a short video to demonstrate:

It was sooo dusty, our sprayer came in extremely handy.  And, I can't forget my crowbar of choice: the Wonder bar, which I might add, lives up to it's name.

Gabe starts on the ceiling again and I start on removing the plaster from the brick chimney....again.

I don't think I could make it through the day without noticing some of the beautiful colors we uncovered:

Aaannnnd, some of the not so beautiful colors:

With all the dust created from the plaster being dumped down a chute down below and all the big pieces of drywall and wood trim we needed to hand carry down the stairs, we didn't make as much progress as we had wanted to.  I actually started feeling light-headed about halfway through the day, realizing that we had left our food at home.  I made a call home to see if mom would make a lunch run for us.  She did; we ate lunch around 2:30, in the RV that Mom & Dad were letting us borrow.  It was very nice to have when nature calls, as well as when we need to wash our hands before meals.  :D  

The room: beginning to look a whole lot different

Now that all the plaster was removed, we could move on to lathe.  It was at this point that it got very monotonous for me, with all the repetitive movements of prying and muscling the stuff off.  Here is a tip: leverage is better than braun, when removing lathe (this could apply to other areas of life too, hee hee).  It got especially hard to remove in the corners, where it would break off in sharp pieces since the rest was buried somehow.

We didn't have any music playing, and with respirators and noisy work ensuing, we discussed little.  I got absorbed in silly thoughts--how I felt like Darth Vader with my respirator.  I just wanted to be done!  It was getting dark in the room, and without all the brightly colored drywall around us, all we had to work with was the dramatic beams of light illuminated by billows of dust from the setting sun.  At least we were on the second floor.  I got JJ Heller's "Back Home" song stuck in my head.  Maybe I'll post the lyrics later.

I enjoyed seeing the bright light coming up through the cracks in the wall and looking down the chute:

Removing the lathe from the ceiling was Gabe's job, while I finished with the walls and removed little lathe nail silhouettes from studs where I could with whatever light was left.  We were almost done, so lugging the industrial halogen up the stairs didn't seem quite worth it.  It was interesting to get a view of the roof through the ceiling going down.  Gabe plowed through many a squirrels nest....but with no squirrels to be found.

And, by the end of the day, after sweeping and residual clean up, (without the spray bottle, as we ran out of water) this was the kind of dust we were dealing with:

Can you make out the stairway?

Thank God for respirators!!!!!

One more weekend with the dumpster.  It's getting mighty full.  I do hope it's not too much trouble next weekend.  We have one more upstairs room to clear, as well as the stairwell.  We will probably be able to fit this in the dumpster and leave floors and roofing for another dumpster full.  Fun fun!

Ok, I'm signing off.  I must add that these blog posts probably won't be happening as frequently since I am starting a new semester of my Master's in Interior Design today!