The Bathroom Floor

The bathroom floor unfortunately deserves a post of its own.  Whomever installed the tile, did a good job. The flooring tile pried off fairly easily with a hammer and a crowbar.  Underneath was a thick layer of adhesive plaster that the tile was set in.  It was level and seemed to have been poured as one side was thicker than the other.  Under the plaster was a thick layer of plywood.  The trouble with that is that it was nailed and screwed down in random constellations.   You could not see where the nails/screws were because they were covered in the white plaster.  It took about FOUR hours demo day five to pry up the floor and it came up in small splinters.  We still have a corner to go over by the toilet (the tub is going to push back against the taller corner wall.

The bathroom floor with tile being removed

Tile removed, down to adhesive

Prying up the plywood sandwich

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.

The double layer ceiling in the bathroom - gutting around the tub

Removed outer wall leaving angled sink and tub for now...

More of the ceiling...

More of the wall

more of the gutted walls

The EVIL ceiling

The gigantic light fixture

More ceiling

The outer wall

Bathroom ceiling and chimney that runs through it

The MESS!!!!

More of the itchy awful mess...

And still more - this all fell out of the ceiling from the attic

What didn't fall and had to be knocked down with a broom...

Bathroom ceiling

Demo Day Trois...

Demo Day Three consisted of the dining room.  I know, some thought this was the nicest room in the house. Alas, no longer!  I have to say that I hate horsehair.  It served its life of 114 years, but it is so dry and crumbly, it falls apart in your hand and has become a permanent part of the wall paper.

Yes we did put up plastic and attempt to seal off the room, but the fine dust makes its way everywhere anyway.

Dining Room before

More dining room BEFORE

Dining Room interior wall BEFORE

A close of of the wallpaper which had faded to a preppy pink and mint green...

The wallpaper underneath the wainscoting

What was under the wainscoting on the wall that backs up to the kitchen

The 1970s wallpaper under the "wainscoting".  The kids wanted to keep it!

114 year old horse hair plaster ugh.

The hauling crew...transporting wood lathe and trim boards.

The "beams" are actually boards sandwiched together and difficult to remove!

The gutted and very dusty room...

Funky wiring - you can see an old doorway that went into a bathroom that was carved out of the kitchen space.

More dusty dirty house.

We did find two interesting things in the ceiling...

U2?  

1980s clearly...not sure who...

Thy middle name is demolition

My Partner in Crime...

Demo Day Two...

This summer I have been told that I have to increase my home renovation contributions.  Apparently blogging, documenting and picking paint colors aren't helping the timeline.  So, unfortunately I will be getting my hands dirty this summer.  Very dirty.

This is my partner in crime.  No we are not surgeons.  If we were, I assure you we would pay someone to do our dirty work!

Here are photos of the second day of demolition...

Fun with the Sawzall

The Electrician baffled by the circuitry...

Unfortunately you really can't get a good sense of how gross this is.  So here are some dead things that fell out of the wall.

The bathroom was added in 1973.  Space was carved out of the two bedrooms.  

Removing the wall between the bathroom and Cassie's bedroom.

Another shot from the bedroom of the now-exposed bathroom.

The bedroom/bathroom.  Not sure how my foot got in there...

The bathroom when there were some walls left...

The view from the hallway...

The highlights...

• When the husband tells you a circuit is dead, NEVER believe him.  
• When you gut 100+ year old outer walls, be prepared for a shower of mice feces and unidentifiable skeletons...Also the occasional intact mouse (dead and mummified).  WEAR A FACE MASK!
• Be prepared to vacuum and mop at least 100 times to get rid of the dust.  Then demo again.  

The daughter is not impressed by her new bedroom/bathroom combo.  She is plotting to move in with the neighbors for the summer.  She said "How am I supposed to get dressed?"  "How are people supposed to shower?"  "This is disturbing".  Wait until she sees the new (temporary) outdoor shower on the back porch (coming soon)...she may just give up bathing for the summer...

So it begins...(again)...

Summer has arrived.  The kids and I finished our last days of school and work together this year and now I am off for eight weeks.  Usually summer is about fun and recharging, the days are much less structured and we sleep in.  This year we are demoing the bathroom.  The only full bathroom in the house.  And I only have eight weeks until we return to the whirlwind that is fall - we hit the ground running with work, and school, and soccer.

Bedroom Corner BEFORE

You would think that demoing the bathroom would be limited to the bathroom,  but we have this small problem called a large window.

Originally there were two windows.  We had to gut the wall with the window to get a sense of what was originally there so we could order appropriate sized new windows.

We want to remove the one window, put the two windows back with a wall in between to separate the bedroom from the bathroom.  A STRAIGHT wall. The Current wall angles in to avoid the window and creates a very awkward bathroom space.  We want to make the bathroom a square instead of a trapezoid.  Crazy, I know.

Demo Day One:

Removing the first wall...

The first wall wasn't so bad.  It was covered with rough boards, but no plaster or wall board, so other than the occasional splinter it went quickly.

Of course then we had to peel off the thick plastic and get into the mouse dropping filled insulation.  Itchy and gross.

The first lively discussion was held about only wanting to do in this room what was necessary for the bathroom vs. just gutting the damn room.  The trouble with only doing part is that you live with a partially gutted room for a long time before having to go in and finish wrecking the place.  While your hands are already dirty, well...  I won't spoil it for you and tell you which side won...

Gutting the window

Yesterday we went to Home Depot and ordered two windows to the tune of $1K.  Ugh.  Yes they are Andersen 400 grade, traditional colonial style windows with wood inside and 3 over 3 grids.  We went crazy and got the stool.  If you don't know what that is, well let's just say I am jealous!

The bad news is that the windows take "about four weeks" to come in.  It is that word about that worries me.  That puts us half way through our timeline.  Ouch.  But don't worry, there is lots we can do without windows.

Stay tuned for more demo fun...