Modern Life in an Antique Farmhouse: Demo Day Four...

Welcome, come on in...

Trying to catch insulation as it falls out of the walls from the ceiling

Demo day four was spent upstairs, mainly in the bedroom. I thought I hated dusty horse hair plaster until I encountered itchy foul rock wool insulation. I don't even have words for how I feel about that!

This demo job was disgusting. It was hot outside. We were covered in plaster dust. The ceiling was full of loose insulation that had been used by mice for years as nests and toilets. The smell was awful. And it itches.

I had to keep running my arms under water to try and remove the particles. We should have had long sleeves tucked into our gloves.

It took all day to chuck lathe out the window, haul to the burn pile. We started filling buckets with plaster and T hauled them down the stairs and out to the dumpster. After about the 20th trip, we just started chucking the plaster out the window too. We had buckets set up below, but a lot missed. We also filled bucket after bucket of insulation and hauled those down to the dumpster. At least those were lighter.

Here are the fabulous surprises that we found:

The outer walls had insulation! Some of it was moldy though as moisture seems to be getting in from outside.
We found an inscription in the wall from the Chalifoux's in 1973 which must be when the bathroom was created upstairs See it Here
We found the original divider between the two rooms (the bathroom was created from taking space from each upper bedroom)
Mice skeletons and fully mummified mice carcasses covered in what looks like creosote (found near the chimney)

What a dusty mess!

The back wall with funky electrical wires - some live and dead-ended in the wall

If I NEVER EVER have to demo any upper room with horse hair and insulation again I would be happy... Unfortunately, we still have two bedrooms and a hallway to deal with (not including the back part of the house)...

The insulation and cobweb filled ceiling

Bathroom sink vent

The husband also wanted to rip out the hallway over the stairs but I talked him out of it. We have just created months (years?) of work to now finish these rooms and we still would have to demo the upper hallway and two bedrooms so if we couldn't finish the job I didn't want any more mess!!!

I have enough mess. Almost a week later, I am still dusting and sweeping and vacuuming up plaster dust. Fun.