This weekend, we really started on our first large scale remodel in this house. And by "we" I mostly mean my Handsome Engineer. I was certainly willing to help, but we did not know how old some of the materials were that we would be dealing with and thought that it was better for me to avoid the dust and debris.
So, I sat in the hallway and wrote an article while my husband did all the physical labor. And we would talk back and forth through the doorway, which was sometimes open and sometimes closed.
This is what it looked like when we started. I had already pulled off sections of wallpaper and paneling before the Engineer decided he would rather just gut the room and redo the wiring, insulation and everything. But you can see a few places where the paneling and wallpaper is still there.
Can you tell it was a boy's room in the 80s?
There were (are) two chimneys that came up through the room, as well as a closet built in one corner.
The closet is gone now. If you look closely, you can see some piping in the wall. At one point in time, this old farmhouse was actually two separate apartments and this room used to be the kitchen. The piping was for the sink. That also explains why most of the outlets are halfway up the wall--they were at counter height.
But the most interesting find of the day was the moment we realized that our house shouldn't really be here anymore.
Can we say chimney fire?
In a farm house built around 1915. I think we (and the residents at the time!) were rather lucky. We know the family who lived here for about 30 years prior to us buying it, and they knew nothing about it. And the drywall (gypsum board, actually) we were pulling out had a patent date of 1942, so I am guessing this fire happened before that.
I think this house has a lot of stories!
End of Day One of Demotion:
Most of the gypsum board is down and some of the insulation. The ceiling is still intact and the rest of the insulation and walls need to come down.
Day two we didn't spend as much time there because we had church in the morning and then someone stopping by that afternoon. But we got everything stripped down to the framing:
It is kind of a shame the chimneys have to come down, but they are a leak hazard and really cut up the room, so we are going to remove them. I plan on re-purposing the bricks in the garden or future patio, that way they still remain a part of the house's story.
The boards you see on the outside wall probably have their own unique story. They are painted white, so they obviously faced out at some point. We think that when the house was resided, they took off the old wooden siding and nailed it back up flat--like what we would use plywood or OSB for now to attach siding or shingles to(can you tell I am married to an engineer? I use phrases like "OSB". I actually had "particle board written, but was corrected). Or, it may have come from a different house or barn altogether at one point. I guess we won't ever really know.
We do know that this house has so much lumber it is probably worth more taken apart than it is in one piece. (Not that we are remotely considering dismantling it!)
And one final shot:
The wainscoting ceiling. It really isn't in very good shape and my Handsome Engineer is worried that, even if it could be restored, it would let in too many bugs and critters. I would love to have the wainscoting though, so we may look into an updated version of the same ceiling. We will see.
Next steps: redo the wiring, take down the chimney, put up new insulation. Then we can put up new walls and make it look like a new (hopefully improved) room again.
Must be their daddy's genes. Really, I swear. Their perfectly normal mother was not laughing and taking pictures and realizing she would have been doing the exact same thing at that age--only it might have involved a bucket on my head rather than a swim cap. hypothetically speaking, of course.
This is what it looked like when we started. I had already pulled off sections of wallpaper and paneling before the Engineer decided he would rather just gut the room and redo the wiring, insulation and everything. But you can see a few places where the paneling and wallpaper is still there.
There were (are) two chimneys that came up through the room, as well as a closet built in one corner.
The closet is gone now. If you look closely, you can see some piping in the wall. At one point in time, this old farmhouse was actually two separate apartments and this room used to be the kitchen. The piping was for the sink. That also explains why most of the outlets are halfway up the wall--they were at counter height.
Can we say chimney fire?
Most of the gypsum board is down and some of the insulation. The ceiling is still intact and the rest of the insulation and walls need to come down.
It is kind of a shame the chimneys have to come down, but they are a leak hazard and really cut up the room, so we are going to remove them. I plan on re-purposing the bricks in the garden or future patio, that way they still remain a part of the house's story.
The boards you see on the outside wall probably have their own unique story. They are painted white, so they obviously faced out at some point. We think that when the house was resided, they took off the old wooden siding and nailed it back up flat--like what we would use plywood or OSB for now to attach siding or shingles to(can you tell I am married to an engineer? I use phrases like "OSB". I actually had "particle board written, but was corrected). Or, it may have come from a different house or barn altogether at one point. I guess we won't ever really know.
The wainscoting ceiling. It really isn't in very good shape and my Handsome Engineer is worried that, even if it could be restored, it would let in too many bugs and critters. I would love to have the wainscoting though, so we may look into an updated version of the same ceiling. We will see.
(photo courtesy of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day)
I thought labrador retrievers were supposed to LIKE water. 
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