A Crack House Rehab Project

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Week 18 January 30th - February 5th, 2007

February 4th, 2007 8:41pm

I've lost count of what week this is. I will go back and figure it out.

Everyone's been wondering when the site is going to be updated. My bad. We did very little from about the 15th of December to New Year's day. Then nothing until the 14th of Jan.; we spent the day working on the house. Next thing it was the 27th and at least that weekend and this one just past we have spent both Saturday and Sunday at the house.

We are still doing the never-ending demo...and yet it doesn't get old. We've discovered that despite the many people we are sure had their hand in the fine construction of this house, every one of them had an agreed upon code of conduct.

When in doubt, use a bigger nail. Or more nails. Or both.

You would be amazed at the quantity of nails used in random places. Then you'd be amazed at the honkin' big nails we've pulled out of some odd places. I've commented before, but I still shake my head when I wrestle a 3 inch ardox nail out of a door frame and then find 4500 finishing nails holding up the window sill.

Anyway, I will start with the this week's activities and then fill in the gap since December as I have time.

I just counted and it is Week 18 (!) from January 30th to February 5th, 2007.

We have discovered that if you post 'free kindling' on a free site (yes, love the craiglist), people actually come and pick up piles of lath. Without coercing. Nails or no nails, they take it all. Thank you to those of you that have the wherewithal to collect it! I was beginning to wonder what one does with all that lath.

Status of work done thus far: the second floor has demolished completely, except some doors. I am still not sure why the doors were left on, but now I think it's funny, so they stay up. We also do not venture upstairs much right now as it's a tad drafty.

Yes, before you ask, we have a working furnace. We leave the house well above freezing so as not to have burst pipes ; however we are also not hosting a tropical oasis. We both work in 2 layers of shirt & sweat shirt and pants and we generally stay quite warm. Stopping for lunch is sometimes an issue, the back cellar door is about as weather proof as a Kleenex so we eat quickly and dash back upstairs to the main floor. I had to laugh today, it was QUITE chilly at -13C plus wind chill to about -20C so we ate lunch in the basement bathroom. I sat on the toilet and Andreas perched on the edge of the tub. This may seem odd, but it has a duct blowing heat right in. Being such a small room, and with the furnace right beside, it warms up quickly and stays that way. We decided it was the panic room.

But I digress...we have mostly been working on demolition of the main floor.

Sunday January 28th, 2007

Andreas and I worked on the kitchen floor. The hardest layer was the micro thin layer of plywood that was about 3 layers down. With all the nails, and I am talking a LOT of nails, it was a royal pain in the behind to peel up. It also splintered easily, pinging shards of wood everywhere. A pitch fork turned out the best tool to pry up this dastardly stuff...who knew?

I wanted to try and rescue some of the papers on the very bottom layer, so we pulled up about 1/2 the floor's multiple layers and got down to the green linoleum. Under the green lay the papers. I did, in the end, not manage to get very many because they stuck to the back of the linoleum. I did get a couple pictures and we both had a good laugh at some of the content. The papers were a mix from 1932 and 1939.

This was an advertisement for a refrigerator, 1939:

"Experience is Behind Kelvinator's 1939 Silver Anniversary Models. No Other Electric Refrigerator Can Equal this Record!"

It slows work down, but these newspapers are very entertaining!

Saturday February 3rd, 2007

We got a later start on Saturday as we were out late Friday night (hope Ma H. enjoyed herself!). We went back to the kitchen, making a vow to actually finish pulling up all the flooring. Yes, my back is killing me (still!). However we did it!

We actually did more than that, as half way through the floor business Andreas decides some of the remaining main floor bathroom wall needs pulling apart. This causes huge avalanches of plaster chunks and insulation to fall through from the second floor and join the waterfall of the same already coming out of the walls. So, there I am, pulling up nails and looking forward to being finished when piles of plaster suddenly pour down, adding to the flooring mess.

I was less than thrilled, however since there was not much I could do about it, I just pointed out the odd spot of lath around the kitchen ceiling that hadn't been completely pulled off yet. More mess.

Once the end of the clean up came around, there was only a square foot of flooring left...you think this only takes a few minutes, and then you remember the 2083 nails and tile tacks in that square foot.

Andreas had also managed to make a start on the hole through from the kitchen/bathroom to the dining room, leaving only the chimney standing between us and a better view. We do intend to remove it, but not until a new furnace is installed.

Despite it seeming like the never-ending flooring removal, after one last dustpan full, we were done!

Sunday February 4th, 2007

Our 'Command Central' sanctuary in the basement is no more. As it is right under the kitchen, the last layer of protection between us and the dust has been removed. Ah well, it had to happen sooner or later!

Today A made a more spacious opening through to the dining room and I took on a personal challenge.

Just me and the Beaver Board.

Please stop laughing.

Seriously, the wall covering over the basement stairs & under the main stairs (after we peeled through the drywall/plaster in week 7) is this really thin stuff, almost cardboard, with the name "Beaver Board" stamped on the back. It had also not been touched since November because it was nailed to the studs with, I kid you not, a nail every 1/2 inch. Two boards would meet on centre of a stud, so when you looked at the seam it was frightening!

Well, I took it on today, and I won. In the process we managed to clear out the old drywall on the other side of that wall, so now you can see through to the basement stairs when you are in the dining room. It looks so much better!

We also took Young Basher to some door frames and although I wanted to drop every non-structural wall in the place, Andreas was having none of that. Something about electrical, ducting, blah blah blah.

Just kidding! Safety always first.

Last but not least, the main floor bathroom is no more - completely gone as of today since we finally pulled up the toilet and the tile floor. We moved the toilet to the back of the kitchen to see if we can squeeze in a powder room there.

It always easier to picture it when you have life size scale model fixtures!