So after much convincing and cajoling from Karen, I went ahead and tore down all the old drywall, paneling and plaster/lath from the inside of the main room of the house. Well it took a few days and it sucked a lot but I managed to get 95% of everything off the walls down to the original interior sheathing. You can see it here in these pictures.
Like what i've done with the place?You can see where the old staircase went to the second floor.
Near the end of the demolition, I was felling worse and worse and my chest was feeling really tight. I had been wearing a really good mask the whole time and working hard so I was breathing pretty hard at times but I felt safe knowing I had a good mask on. I decided to have a break and look at my mask and I pulled out the filter carterage and find its got a crack in the bottom of it. The crack wasn’t large but it was allowing a really fine layer of dust into my lungs. I have to tell you that it was a bit scary wondering what might be in that 144 year old plaster dust that was now coating my innards. I dug out my other mask and checked the filter before I started back to work, (Which I do now everytime I put it on.) and felt better right away.
I managed to get 95% of the old plaster and lath down before they picked up the bin. I will have to make a dump run to get rid of the last of it. I do love a dump run so that should be fun. I spent a good part of a day vacuuming and mopping to get rid of all the dust I kicked up during the demo. I did what I could to keep it out of the rest of the house and I also made sure the girls and Karen were out of the house as much as possible while I was working lest they have to deal with the dust too.
A side note here: If you look in this picture to the left you can see a shovel next to the sliding door. That was by far the best tool I used when removing the plaster and drywall. I was able to slid it in behind and pry off large pieces of both drywall and plaster. It was a wonderful tool for the job.
A little treat I found under the plaster where the shovel is in this picture is a whole lot of rotten wood. Right down to the sill plate in fact. From the corner to the middle of the door. Great. I love old houses. When we bought the house, the soffit above this area had a large hole in it that had rotted away and animals were using as a door to the attic. We had new soffits and eaves installed even before we moved in and felt in doing so we had corrected any problems we might have from that area of the house. Well, it seems that the hole had been letting water run down the inside of that wall for a longgggggg time. I have remove tons of rotted wood. I will take a picture of the hole tomorrow. I am currently filling the hole and replacing all the rotted wood with new presure treated lumber and tying it back to the structure as best I can. Luckily there seems to be no sagging anywhere in that area of walls or anything. The only place in the house actually where there is no tilt or sag so I am feeling pretty good about replacing all the rot. I will photograph the finished result for all the world to see and post it soon.
Anyhow, its late and I’m beat.
Gnite.
