Demolition Continues...

I'm making great headway. 

First, did I mention the hundreds....no....THOUSANDS of mud dauber nests in the attic and wall cavities??  Industrious little guys if left alone!  So much so that I must pay tribute to them and give them their own page!

Anyway, all of the rooms except one part of the master bath have been stripped of their paneling and doors.  It's all ended piled in the garage and that semi-sorta space that used to be the carport.

With the exception of the bathroom and hall ceilings covered below, that leaves only the ceilings in the three bedrooms and the partial ceiling in Great Room to come down which is planned for next week.  I'm leaving all the carpeting in until last.

I did have a little bit of excitement when pulling down a panel in the master bath where the sink used to be.  I had capped all the water lines so I could better remove the paneling but I wasn't paying attention and one of the caps got stuck in the panel hole.  I yanked on the panel and the water line where it had been coupled in 1969 came undone shooting a nice 1/2 wide stream of water across the room.  OOPS!  Well, at least it wasn't the cap I put on earlier that gave way.  That would really have been annoying!  And I'm sure glad I had a new water shut off valve and my shop vac handy!!

I haven't yet removed the insulation throughout yet figuring it's best to leave it in place for now and pull it all down at one time when I'm ready to haul it immediately off to the landfill.

I pulled the sheetrock down from the ceilings in the bedroom closets, entry halls, and the two bathrooms.  Thank god I had my mask and goggles on because there was just no pretty or sanitary way of doing it.  You have to be standing underneath it to get it to come down.  It was every bit as NASTY as I thought it would likely be.  I got rained on by rat shit, cat shit, bird shit, mud dauber nests and the residue and dust from 42 years of who knows what other kind of shit left up there.

That's pristine compared to what came down when I pulled the ceilings down in the bathrooms.  Trust me, those stains are necessarily water stains..... and not to gross you out even more, but this fossilized sample (one of several found throughout) fell from the partial ceiling removal in the Great Room leaving me to wonder what kind of animal could do that in a confined 5.5" tall space stuffed (or was) with insulation....

Given the roof rafters design the only way in or out was from the external eves.  That's some industrious cat size animal whatever it was nesting and dumping in the insulation batts (rendering them useless I might add).

For those of you old enough to remember, I found several 1970's vintage carpet store 'samples' of shag carpeting in a host of colors from that time period.  If I had a pair of bell bottom jeans (shudder) I could mount them side by side as a public warning reminder of what NEVER to do again!

Opportunities abound!
It's exciting to see the bones of the house exposed.  They're stout and in excellent condition!  As anticipated, opening up the walls opens up all kinds of opportunities to make various improvements on the design and visual appeal of the place.  I'll expand on those ideas later as I start 'improving' on things.

One area deserving special mention now is the architectural significance of the entry hall, the two hallways around the fireplace, and the two bathrooms.  For some unfathomable reason, the ceilings in all of those areas were by design only 75" high. There's a lot of dead but attractive space up there above those ceilings but yet, here it is! 

The entry hall feels claustrophobic and dark when first entering the home.

 The bathroom ceilings also lent to the enclosed feeling.

(Taken while owners still lived there.)

So what's the answer.....?

Let's vault everything.....
As anticipated, the low ceilings were really just cosmetic and not structural which means for the most part they can be removed in favor using the underside of the roof thus making them taller and vaulted matching ceilings in the bedrooms and the Great Room.  That's going to considerably improve the open feel of each of those rooms.  Since I can now go up to roof, I can install several skylights allowing natural light into those previously dark cave-like areas.  That will go a long way to reducing energy consumption too.

Since I want to relocated the AC and water heater systems to the area above the center hall to free up additional closet space, that particular ceiling height will remain unchanged.  The entry hall leading to the center hall can be vaulted as can likely the two hallways on either side of the fireplace but I'm not sure yet if I will vault those two.  That may be going to far for no particularly good reason.  I'll leave the ceilings in the bedroom closets at the same height as that will facilitate new/improved mechanical systems needs.

The laundry dilemma...
At one point, the center hall used to house the laundry room.  Several of my friends commented on the prospect of walking in the front door only to see the washer and dryer staring back at you.  I had to agree.  It was definitely a problem that needed a resolution.

The previous residents solved their problem by attaching garden hoses (seen on the garage floor pic above) to the cold and hot water spigots in the hallway and running them above the entry hall ceiling out to the garage (I'm sure there's a term for that).  My neighbor across the street suggested I could build something on the side of the house....all I could envision was an Outhouse.  No thanks.

As the walls came down I noted in the main bath, there perhaps appeared to be enough space to support a stackable where the sink was originally placed.

A small pedestal sink could be placed to the right of that without feeling like you're crowding the toilet.  It would solve a pretty major issue.  The washer would have to be a front loader to minimize the amount of water sent to the septic system (which is pending investigation and fodder for a future posting).  I'm going to look into that more!

In the meantime, to better impress my friends upon entering my home, I figured I'd put the hallway to a better use......

 

Plenty of space to...spread (but no toe tapping!).  An excellent idea, don't you think?

All in all, a very good two weeks indeed!!