Demo Day One

I had absolutely ZERO intentions of tearing apart the house day.  I simply wanted to start moving my stuff from my current house to this new one.

Oops.

While I was giving my brother a tour of the home, I told him that I hoped to rip all of the wood paneling out of the house.  We were in the downstairs Master bedroom when I showed him what I was talking about.  I grabbed a piece of the paneling and pulled.

I saw a blue wall.

The piece that started it all.  I pulled this piece off in front of my brother, and my curiosity was piqued.

Hmm.  All of a sudden, my curiosity got the best of me.  I had hope!  There WERE walls behind the paneling.  And the walls seemed to be intact!!!

After my brother left, I just couldn't wait any longer.  I had no way of locking up my items in a storage shed outside anyway, so I wasn't going to move my stuff today after all.  So it was time for a new game plan.

DEMO DAY!!!

The DARK room before I started demoing.

I started pulling the dark brown paneling off the walls in the bedroom.  I didn't have the right tools, and I didn't have any gloves!  But I had the desire!!!  I borrowed a flat screwdriver and hammer from my brother before he left.

And I went at it.

The downstairs bedroom was so dark with the brown paneling and brown carpet!

This bedroom looks inviting, right?  SO DARK!!!

The dark bedroom before removing the paneling.

Ok, listen, I was foolish.  I had wood breaking and splintering all around me (the wood paneling was so cheap it wouldn't even stay together when you yanked on it).  I had pieces with nails falling from overhead.  I had nails sticking up from the floor.  I was being pretty stupid as far as safety, but I wanted to do SOMETHING.

This one hurt the most.  Ouch!

She was a long one!

The room started to take shape pretty well!  Behind those dark brown panels was a bright blue plaster wall!  As more and more paneling came off, the room just brightened up!  I loved it!  The walls themselves are not too bad.  Both windows have some water damage below them, and it is unknown how old that is (if it was before or after the newer windows were installed).

Also, on the exterior walls, they had put up some sort of vapor barrier.  It looked like a black trash bag spread over the entire wall.  I removed all of that.

The "black trash bag" on the exterior walls.

But as a whole, the walls look like they can be salvaged!

The room before...

During...

And After!

In the middle of removing the panels.

This wall has some sort of tar or glue from the bathroom remodel.  I'm not sure how to get that off.

I was so eager to find hardwood floors, but I haven't found any on the first floor yet!  Underneath the carpet was a layer of white linoleum, then another floral floor!  Three floors down and still no original!

The front downstairs bedroom is panel-free!  The mess I left behind.

I took a late lunch break and grabbed tools from my parents' house.  I picked up a step-stool and a pry-bar.  Once back at the house, I decided to keep going in the living room!

The current ceiling in the living room.  It's gotta go!

The living room is ANYTHING but inviting.  So dark!

A good view of the living room walls before I started.  Notice the mess in the bedroom from which I just completed!

But first, I needed to remove the drop ceiling.  I was eager to open that compressed and depressed room back up!  So I removed the tiles one-by-one.  Then I tried to salvage the metal framing so I could re-sell it.  It didn't take me too long to figure out that I will just recycle the aluminum framing rather than baby it.  It made my job a whole lot more easy being able to bend it and ruin it!

But all is not well.  Behind the acoustic ceiling tile, I found a huuuuuuuuge setback.  The entire living room ceiling is covered in OSB!!!  As to why, I have NO idea.  But it is a big project that will have to come down.  I assume that the plaster ceiling is in such bad shape that they decided to prop it up with OSB, but I have no idea.  Unfortunately, though, it's all got to come down.  Boo.  I didn't see that one coming.

I was bummed to see that OSB on the ceiling.  It all has to come down.

Well, I pulled off panel by panel in the living room.  And I had another significant setback!  In the bedroom, the wood paneling was held on by small nails.  The paneling actually popped up fairly easily (although it ripped into pieces).  Well, in the living room, the paneling was held on by glue.  That glue has looooooooong lost its effectiveness, but it remains all over the walls.  These panels would pull off in much larger sheets and not break as much as the bedroom.  But whereas the bedroom walls were clean and smooth, these walls are covered in rough yellow glue.  I have NO idea how to get that off.  But it's going to be a chore, for sure.

I learned from notes on the walls that these panels were installed in December 1973.  So they have kept that house dark for 46 years!!!  That is the biggest change from today.  The house is so much brighter already!  It's kind of exciting!!!

Oh, and one other important note.  We had CRAZY winds today (the biggest gust was 61 MPH).  I had a hard time sleeping last night, as the siding on my current house is not installed correctly.  The nails were not hammered far enough in, so my siding just sits there and flaps in the wind all night long.  Well, I expected the same creaking and cracking noises at this house.  And I was shocked to "hear" that this house was silent!!!  I mean, you would walk in from the nasty wind outside of a steady 35-40 MPH, and as soon as you got in the house, it just went silent!

It was almost surreal.  I had to smile, though!  They really don't make houses like they used to!  I mean, occasionally, I could hear the wind, sure, but it wasn't steady at all.  A wild windstorm was going on outside, and I was peaceful inside!

As I removed the paneling in the living room, I noticed a weird film left on the walls.  It was likely glue holding the paneling in place.  GRR!!!  I want to see fresh and clean walls!  This was supposed to go easy!

I found a couple of neat surprises today, too.  As I removed the drop ceiling, I noticed a little "peek-a-boo" piece of window and wood above the front door!  What was it?!  Was this a tall door for Abraham Lincoln and his hat?!  Did he visit this house?!  As I pulled down the rest of the paneling, though, I found the old original transom window!!!  How cool.  Both sides are still intact inside and outside.  The glass was covered in some sort of film on the inside, but again, the glue had long lost its effectiveness.  I think I am going to try to keep this original piece of the home.

Removing the drop ceiling.  And it wasn't until writing this blog that I just realized something.  It was THIS picture.  I have been curious as to what all of those white patch marks are.  Well, I was told at closing that the downstairs had had insulation blown in the walls.  The previous owner told me it was blown in from outside, but I think he might be mistaken.  I think these are all of the holes made on the inside to blow in insulation!!!

A little surprise above the front door!

Was it a big, tall door?!

I found the original transom window from the 1860's above the front door!

I also found several notes from the original owners.  They showed the dates of the wood paneling install complete with their nicknames.  I'll probably track down the previous owners and ask who Punjab, Podunk, Moppy Dog Ears, and Moppy Head are.

A little surprise behind the paneling.

The paneling was put up in December 1973.

Names and notes that they thought they would never see again.

Another name on the wall.

I also found a horizontal piece of wood that runs nearly the entire way around the room in the middle of the wall.  I can't for the life of me figure out what this would be.  I'll have to do some more research and ask around.

In the middle of demoing the living room.

In somewhat of a disappointing removal of the paneling, I am no closer to figuring out what the slope in the wall is from.  I had assumed it was some sort of chimney, but the plaster covers it up, and I still don't know!

What is behind that slope?!  An old chimney?!

The verdict is still out.  I still don't know!

Towards the end of the day, I had Mom bring over some tools (and dinner!) after she got off from work at 5:00 P.M.  I wanted to try to take the OSB panels off the ceiling, and I wanted to snip the metal holding the acoustic ceiling frame up.  Well, the little battery-powered drills were just simply not enough to take the long screws out of the plaster.  I also didn't have a ladder, so didn't have a great angle on them, either.  That project will have to wait.

I showed Mom the glue all over the walls, and upon further inspection, I have quite a mess on my hands!  The glue actually flakes off, albeit in small chunks, but what is actually happening is that the glue is flaking off on top of the paint...on top of the paint...on top of the paint...on top of the wallpaper...on top of the wallpaper...on top of the wallpaper.  We can see three different types of wallpaper and an unknown amount of paint layers.  So maybe the walls can be cleaned up after all.

The white is the original plaster wall.  Mom started removing pieces (see the floor).  We found numerous layers of paint and wallpaper.  Also see the large crack!

But, my, oh, my, that is going to be a chore!!!

So.Much.Work.

All in all, I had a decent day of demo.  Two rooms are mostly done.  I left the ceiling fan hanging for the light it offers and the drop ceiling surrounding it.  But the paneling is off in two rooms!

I only stepped on three nails, and my hands are only slightly bloody in several locations.  I picked up gloves after my lunch break.  (To be fair, they were in my own truck the entire time.  I had looked initially but did not see them.  Well, I found them later after I had bloodied up my hands a good bit.  I'm an idiot).

So I'm kind of dejected about the condition of the living room walls.  I'm not sure what to do or how to do it.  And I'm REALLY toying with just tearing them all out and building it back up from the studs.  That way I can run new wire, new drywall, new insulation.

What to do, what to do.