Memorial Day Weekend

Back so soon?  Why yes!  We bypassed a Memorial weekend trip away to the beach to stay home and work on the house.  What a sacrifice, I know!!  :D  Jk, there were other things holding us back as well, which made the decision to stay easier--a visit from my brother Ian, and a friends wedding.

We (when I say we, I mean "I") are learning we have to be committed to this project.  Dad and our timeline help motivate us to stay on task.

We came to the house, as per usual, on Friday afternoon, working about 5 hours.  We were gearing up for a scorcher of a weekend.  Humidity was high, so we packed lots of water.  It was good we didn't have to do too much unshaded work.  I worked predominantly that day on cleaning up the perimeter of the main space.  The crawl space needed to be vacuumed since we created so much debris and mess taking out the stairwell.  It's a good thing we had a wet/dry vac...we had to empty it out a couple of times.  I also vacuumed out the crevices along the walls where most of the plaster and debris would fall.  Eventually we will be closing up the walls again, and we don't want to leave cobwebs in there if we can help it!  Gabe and Dad worked on removing all the pieces of the stairs remaining.

There were some small pieces of heart pine under all of it, so we kept them, and I took the nails out of those boards.  Once that was done, they removed some of the ledger board that was rotting on either side.

Here Gabe is working on removing few remaining rotten floor joists:

Then Gabe filled in the top of the stone rubble foundation with a flat mortar base for the new ledger board to sit on top of.

Here I am doing the cleaning duty I do best...

With all the debris clean up and how hot it was, we really needed a shower, bad!

The next day, Saturday, we didn't make it out to the house, since Gabe helped a couple friends move and then we went to a wedding later that day.  My bro Ian was home for the weekend and wanted to help out, so he and Dad went out to the house for a couple of hours.  They were able to nail in some joist hangers for the joists that were hung last weekend and remove the rest of the bricks off of the porch.

We came out to Mom & Dad's on Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a good meal for Ian's birthday at a nearby vineyard with stunning views.  We were in vacation mode when we came out earlier that day, so Gabe forgot his tool bag that he brings from home every weekend (for security sake), so we were a little bit handicapped the next day when we went out to the house to work.

Day 32, Monday was really hot, and there was only a slight breeze.  They had ripped some 2 X 8 pressure treated boards down with the table saw at Mom & Dad's before we left, to use as the ledger board.  On site, Gabe first sawed down the studs so the ledger board would fit under them.

Then, Gabe and Dad placed it on top of the smooth surfaces Gabe created previously with the concrete.

They spent a little bit longer than expected getting it level and getting it to fit under the studs.  The board had to be trimmed out in certain spots, so it was about an hour going back and forth trying to get it to fit.

While they were doing this, I was securing joist hangers:

Action shot!

Once they got the ledger board in place, Gabe let me use the nail gun.  It was heavy!  Here is a short video detailing the experience:

It was the supported by two more boards, side by side, nailed into place.

The last joist in the main area, that had previously been hidden under the stairs was finally supported like the others with a 2 X 10 and leveled and blocked to the ledger board, as seen below:

Gabe works to secure the two areas together, even though it is under the one wall and really awkward to get to:

Since we didn't have all the tools we needed, we called it a day earlier than usual.

Gabe's last tasks of the day were to attach the remaining joists to the porch section (future kitchen area), two on the south end and one on the north.  Here he is finishing up the one on the north end:

Here is an interior shot looking east, down to the bare bones!!  Doesn't it look good??!? (it kinda looks like a robot face...hehe)

The board below on the diagonal is the one that will hold up the addition when we remove the rotten sections from it next time:

There was a little bit more cleaning up to do.  Mom stopped by with a large box fan since it was so hot, but we were winding down at that point.  She helped us organize the place and I cleaned up the debris down below and we called it a day.

                                                                                         Cleaning up shop!                                     All clean!!!

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!

Before/After Demo Pics 1/7/12

Clearing out the bathroom

 Before / After

 Before / After

"Before" pic, in LR looking into Kitchen & Bath

"After" pic, Gabe removing lathe

"Before" pic in LR looking into DR


"After" pic, notice no real lintel & no right footer


Layers: left-bathroom flooring, right-paint colors on plaster

Beautiful weather weekend

A few things I learned from our first demolition weekend:
-cast iron tubs are heavy
-wearing a respirator makes my voice sound like Chewbacca
-they used license plates and tin container lids to patch holes in the walls behind the frig in the 1950's
-how to remove lathe & plaster
-my husband is even more hulking than I thought
-the sleep of the laborer is sweet

In a nutshell, this weekend was great.  We went out to the house Friday afternoon and then back again for most of Saturday to start on demo.  We saw incredible sunny and 60's weather, in light of the fact a couple days ago it was about 17 degrees when Gabe left in the morning and I couldn't start my diesel car because of it!

Friday, we got the entire kitchen cleared out: all the cabinets, countertops stove, sink, water heater, refrigerator, and *bonus*: a super old dishwasher that we hadn't noticed at all yet!  The heaviest item from that list was the water heater, as it was full of water!!  We managed to get it out on the porch and have it start draining.  Gabe was concerned while we were removing it that it would just break right though the floor, since it was so soft!  We saw that the west wall of the kitchen was probably the original exterior wood siding and not the pale yellow stucco siding that we see on it now.  Have I mentioned the original house was built in the 1890's???  Yes, lots of surprises.  We found lots of coins and interesting objects too, even a Coke bottle from 1995 :)

Our goal for Friday was to just demo the kitchen, but while I was sweeping the kitchen and shoveling some parts where the subfloor was as wet as mulch,  Gabe was making some real progress on removing fixtures from the downstairs (and only) bathroom.  He got the sink and toilet out, and called for my help once he had uninstalled the cast iron tub.  This particular tub was probably 300-400 lb. and we were sliding it across the floor on it's side.  We got it out to the porch together, and up on to this board precariously perched up there.  Might I add the slab of wood Gabe selected to span the distance from porch to dumpster (it's about a 6' drop) just made it with about 2-3" inches of clearance on both sides. We did not expect the dumpster to be placed as far away as it was.  Since all the kitchen appliances were also out on the porch I was having trouble getting enough space to leverage myself to push it over the edge since Gabe was on the other side (standing in the dumpster with all the nails and broken glass to step on) to guide the tub into the dumpster.  While we quizzed for a few moments as to what were doing a couple stopped by and a man got out and asked us if we needed some help.  I let him take my spot to push it over the edge and voila! it was done.  That was kind of them!  By this time the sun is really setting and our site is getting a bit dark.  I worked on removing nails on our reclaimed 2 X 4's while Gabe was getting super dirty taking drywall and sawdust insulation out of the bathroom ceiling and walls.  He got the whole ceiling down and about half of the walls.  That was that for Friday adventures.

Saturday, we got to the site around 10 am after a delicious pancakes and bacon breakfast at Mom & Dad's.  Today we were equipped with my parents R.V. so we could use the microwave and frig for lunch and be able to wash our hands and use the facilities too.  Our first task was to check to see if the power company actually came on Friday.  It hadn't.  We got to work removing the rest of the drywall and messy sawdust insulation in the bathroom.  It wasn't straight sawdust, it was encapsulated in tar paper, but if it got torn, which it did, the sawdust went everywhere.  Gabe thought the bathroom addition was added in the 80's because of the permitting sticker on the water pipes.  There were a bunch of holes in the floor that kept forming, especially around the water pipes at the base and another hole that was widening where the tub met the wall on the south side.  With the tub gone, the floor sagged and looked very compromised; I was hesitant to even put weight on it.

After I got it all swept out, we moved into the main area of the original space, a common room of sorts.  Plastic went down since we were about to hack into the wall separating the kitchen from the living room/common room.  With our respirators in tact, we got the lathe and plaster down.  Gabe diligently took 50 gal. trash can loads out to the dumpster at interval to keep the work space somewhat clean.  I enjoyed seeing layers of paint, which I plan to hold on to, since they are nice colors of blue-green, mustard yellow, olive green and farmhouse red.  I want to match them and re-incorporate the colors when we are ready to paint and stage the house to rent/sell.

Mom & Dad stopped by during lunch at 3:45 :) and put their hands to work clearing out some brush on the exterior of the house as well as some of the trash and debris on the back porch.  We sure enjoyed showing our progress!  I will post pictures and a video next.

It stayed sunny and warm both days and we count that a complete blessing straight from our good God.  Also, another fun fact we haven't mentioned: the first day we looked at the site we noticed the house number---is the same as my parents house!!!  How fun! and probably added a bit of surety that this was indeed the house for us.