Anyone that thinks the pen is mightier than the sword has not seen my husband swing his hammer with such deadly force. For some reason that I did not fully understand, my husband decided to continue removing the ceiling above the dining room last night - three hours before we had to leave for church. I give the man credit; he got it done in time for me to make dinner and we even left for church a few minutes early.
But I digress. As he was removing the ceiling, he saw what he thought was just a big pile of a dust bunny. All of a sudden, he started teetering on the ladder - I thought he lost his balance or something. I mean, he looked so comical flailing around, but then he started yelling for the hammer. Apparently, the dust bunny was actually alive and turned out to be yet another bat.
Whack with the hammer and that bat was no more. Ugh....only our youngest son seemed excited by it all. He spent the rest of the time singing and dancing around the house talking about how we had seven bats but now we have eight. All I can say, is I am sick of these bats and I really want to know how they are getting in the house so that we can permanently close up their access.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
What Were We Thinking....
Sometimes, I really wonder, what were we thinking...as in, what were we thinking when we bought this house? Or, what were we thinking to start this project? Case in point....
In our last post, I showed the panel wall that we opened. Remember this?
In that post, I forgot to mention that we plan on replacing the "wonderful" outdoor support beams with a reproduction of the built-in bookcases that someone chose to remove. We found an example to give to our wonderful Amish wood crafter from in the Antique Home site. Here is a the picture for you.
But I digress...back to the question of the day. One would think that we would stop with just the plywood wall, but of course not. The deconstruction continued...to the ceilings. This time, though, I wised up and made sure to improvise some drop cloths to protect the furniture from the dust - especially my 1911 upright grand piano.
Taking down the first ceiling was not bad at all and we were pleasantly surprised to see how clean it was up there. Of course, we did discover a few unanticipated things too.
A pipe runs from the outside wall of the house to the center of the room, and has old wires still in it. It is my educated guess that this pipe originally held gas for gas lights, but was then converted to knob and tube electricity at some point and then replaced finally with modern electric lines.
Here is a picture of the rest of the pipe. As you can see from this photo and the ones following, the ceiling looks really clean.
I am sure you are wondering what we are planning on doing? Well, we decided that we really like the extra seven, yes 7 inches of height that this gives the room. And, since we have no idea how any of the rooms were originally finished, but we do know that the house was built as a showplace, we have decided to go all out and really dress it up...with finished beamed ceilings.
Something along the lines of the ceiling above. We have decided to also go for this look in the dining room. We thought that this would help expand both spaces and make them feel larger and more formal. It was while starting the ceiling in the dining room that we found stuff that was not as clean or appealing.
Things like swarming nests of creepy crawling lady bugs. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily have an issue with lady bugs. They are great for my garden. However, I detest little critters of any kind (excluding children :-) of course) anywhere in my house! It just gives me the creeps. But that was nothing compared to the other "evidence" we found.
We have had so much trouble with bats in the house this past summer. If my memory serves me correctly, we were upwards of seven of them to-date. Well, we now believe that they have been somehow living in our ceiling! There was plenty of evidence since we seem to have excavated their "outhouse"!
All over the drop cloth that we used to cover the computer desk and equipment. (Uhhh, to think that this was above me each and every day as I worked!)
The insulation was absolutely coated with their excrement. I refused to touch the stuff to begin with due to the fiberglass fibers, but I really draw the line at poop!
Unfortunately, we were caught off guards and were not expecting this at all, so a bunch ended up on the floor. We cleaned it all up, but then had to stop. We had run out of garbage bags to contain it all and did not want to remove any more insulation and have it laying around. Especially with a baby that is in to everything these days!
Our final disgusting discovery was this dehydrated baby mouse. Fortunately, my husband saw it before it landed on me, the kids or the floor! We were able to divert this little critter right into a bag and out the door.
We are frustrated and discouraged for many reasons. Was buying this house the right decision? We feel that in part, we were misled by the quality of the "remodeling" work done. We were told that all the rooms had been completely gutted, insulated, etc. Well, it appears that the above statement is only partially true at best. And what work was done was of such inferior quality that we don't think we can trust any of it. Plywood walls? Really?
At least I can be thankful that our children are learning a lot of valuable skills - like using a hammer, safety glasses, and how to safely climb a ladder!
I can only pray that they will look back on their childhood home with fun and fond memories. Hopefully, they will also learn a lot along the way. Especially what NOT to do!
In our last post, I showed the panel wall that we opened. Remember this?
In that post, I forgot to mention that we plan on replacing the "wonderful" outdoor support beams with a reproduction of the built-in bookcases that someone chose to remove. We found an example to give to our wonderful Amish wood crafter from in the Antique Home site. Here is a the picture for you.
But I digress...back to the question of the day. One would think that we would stop with just the plywood wall, but of course not. The deconstruction continued...to the ceilings. This time, though, I wised up and made sure to improvise some drop cloths to protect the furniture from the dust - especially my 1911 upright grand piano.
Taking down the first ceiling was not bad at all and we were pleasantly surprised to see how clean it was up there. Of course, we did discover a few unanticipated things too.
A pipe runs from the outside wall of the house to the center of the room, and has old wires still in it. It is my educated guess that this pipe originally held gas for gas lights, but was then converted to knob and tube electricity at some point and then replaced finally with modern electric lines.
Here is a picture of the rest of the pipe. As you can see from this photo and the ones following, the ceiling looks really clean.
I am sure you are wondering what we are planning on doing? Well, we decided that we really like the extra seven, yes 7 inches of height that this gives the room. And, since we have no idea how any of the rooms were originally finished, but we do know that the house was built as a showplace, we have decided to go all out and really dress it up...with finished beamed ceilings.
Something along the lines of the ceiling above. We have decided to also go for this look in the dining room. We thought that this would help expand both spaces and make them feel larger and more formal. It was while starting the ceiling in the dining room that we found stuff that was not as clean or appealing.
Things like swarming nests of creepy crawling lady bugs. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily have an issue with lady bugs. They are great for my garden. However, I detest little critters of any kind (excluding children :-) of course) anywhere in my house! It just gives me the creeps. But that was nothing compared to the other "evidence" we found.
We have had so much trouble with bats in the house this past summer. If my memory serves me correctly, we were upwards of seven of them to-date. Well, we now believe that they have been somehow living in our ceiling! There was plenty of evidence since we seem to have excavated their "outhouse"!
All over the drop cloth that we used to cover the computer desk and equipment. (Uhhh, to think that this was above me each and every day as I worked!)
The insulation was absolutely coated with their excrement. I refused to touch the stuff to begin with due to the fiberglass fibers, but I really draw the line at poop!
Unfortunately, we were caught off guards and were not expecting this at all, so a bunch ended up on the floor. We cleaned it all up, but then had to stop. We had run out of garbage bags to contain it all and did not want to remove any more insulation and have it laying around. Especially with a baby that is in to everything these days!
Our final disgusting discovery was this dehydrated baby mouse. Fortunately, my husband saw it before it landed on me, the kids or the floor! We were able to divert this little critter right into a bag and out the door.
We are frustrated and discouraged for many reasons. Was buying this house the right decision? We feel that in part, we were misled by the quality of the "remodeling" work done. We were told that all the rooms had been completely gutted, insulated, etc. Well, it appears that the above statement is only partially true at best. And what work was done was of such inferior quality that we don't think we can trust any of it. Plywood walls? Really?
At least I can be thankful that our children are learning a lot of valuable skills - like using a hammer, safety glasses, and how to safely climb a ladder!
I can only pray that they will look back on their childhood home with fun and fond memories. Hopefully, they will also learn a lot along the way. Especially what NOT to do!
Friday, November 2, 2012
Deconstructing the Plywood Walls
Shortly after we bought our house, we noticed that the walls above the pillars located between the living room and dining room were made of plywood. Yes, plywood. Initially, we discovered this because we noticed a crack in the wall and since this is right below the master bedroom, we were worried about the stability of the second floor.
You might remember this picture from one of our previous posts. When we bought the house, these white "pillars" were covered with baseboard.
We had removed the baseboard, but left the ceiling alone for the time being. That is, until today.
The first thing we had to do was to identify where all the screws were that attached the plywood to the wood studs and supporting woodwork. My poor husband really had his work cut out for him on this project!
Once the screws were removed, he attempted to pry out the plywood pieces, uses a hammer and crowbar. Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture below, the hammer just up and quick!
However, we were not deterred and continued the slow and tedious process of removing the plywood. Not only did we have to remove a lot of screws, but we also had to strip out the drywall netting used for the top and side seems.
When the first piece was finally removed, it only made us more anxious to remove the rest.
We continued to work on it for a while, but then stopped for the night.
We probably could have kept going, but a slight mishap with the ladder resulted in a bruised and swollen ankle. My poor husband did quite a number on himself. But it was back to work bright and early today - but with some extra "help"!
Mommy was starting to get concerned about the safety of the little man, and so it was time to get some protective gear on. Daddy was more than happy to donate his. Thank you Daddy!
With master craftsman DJ giving a helping hand, the job seemed to go so much faster.
Not really, but he was so proud of being such a big "helper" working on the house with his Daddy!
And DJ taught us a few things too. This whole time, I thought those funny loops on blue jeans were called belt holders for a reason - such as holding your belt. But I have been corrected in the error of my thinking. Apparently, those are crucial for holding your necessary tools! Your pockets provide some additional holding capacity too.
It was surprising how many screws were used to install the plywood wall! And of course, they had to use two different types of screws, so my dear husband was always having to switch between a star bit and a phillips bit. It was my job to hand him the drill with the correct bit and collect the screws as he removed them. We managed to collect quite a few of them to use on other projects around the house.
Here is what it looks like now that it has been all deconstructed and cleaned up. I love the look of the beams and the amount of light that transfers from the dining room into the living room. It gives it a feeling of more space too.
One of the things that was really popular in the 1920s was the use of stained glass windows. I am thinking about incorporating them in a few areas of the house, including this space. Now, the picture below is only to give a visual conceptual idea of what it is that I am thinking. Of course, we would get a professional to actually design the glass the glass to specifically fit our space. But at least, this way, you can see what I am envisioning.
Don't you think that it will make this space absolutely stunning! I do. :-)
You might remember this picture from one of our previous posts. When we bought the house, these white "pillars" were covered with baseboard.
We had removed the baseboard, but left the ceiling alone for the time being. That is, until today.
The first thing we had to do was to identify where all the screws were that attached the plywood to the wood studs and supporting woodwork. My poor husband really had his work cut out for him on this project!
Once the screws were removed, he attempted to pry out the plywood pieces, uses a hammer and crowbar. Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture below, the hammer just up and quick!
However, we were not deterred and continued the slow and tedious process of removing the plywood. Not only did we have to remove a lot of screws, but we also had to strip out the drywall netting used for the top and side seems.
When the first piece was finally removed, it only made us more anxious to remove the rest.
We continued to work on it for a while, but then stopped for the night.
We probably could have kept going, but a slight mishap with the ladder resulted in a bruised and swollen ankle. My poor husband did quite a number on himself. But it was back to work bright and early today - but with some extra "help"!
Mommy was starting to get concerned about the safety of the little man, and so it was time to get some protective gear on. Daddy was more than happy to donate his. Thank you Daddy!
With master craftsman DJ giving a helping hand, the job seemed to go so much faster.
Not really, but he was so proud of being such a big "helper" working on the house with his Daddy!
And DJ taught us a few things too. This whole time, I thought those funny loops on blue jeans were called belt holders for a reason - such as holding your belt. But I have been corrected in the error of my thinking. Apparently, those are crucial for holding your necessary tools! Your pockets provide some additional holding capacity too.
It was surprising how many screws were used to install the plywood wall! And of course, they had to use two different types of screws, so my dear husband was always having to switch between a star bit and a phillips bit. It was my job to hand him the drill with the correct bit and collect the screws as he removed them. We managed to collect quite a few of them to use on other projects around the house.
Here is what it looks like now that it has been all deconstructed and cleaned up. I love the look of the beams and the amount of light that transfers from the dining room into the living room. It gives it a feeling of more space too.
Don't you think that it will make this space absolutely stunning! I do. :-)
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