tearing out the drywall/plaster

catching up: january 10

while beginning to tear out the drywall in the laundry room we found someone's home:

UM, EWWWWWWW!!!!!

i will also add that we found a matching and slightly bigger nest on the other side. what is better than that? we found the old tenants...i wish i was there to take the picture when nick opened the wall.

 but there it was. a bird, dead and preserved in the wall, and his friend mr. squirrel (who unlucky for us still had a bit of an unpleasant odor!)

squirrel and bird remains!
UM, SUPER EWWWWWW!!!!
anyhoo, here's the open walls.

a little drafty in this room you say??

more nests.
also, take note of the lack of a header on this doorway. so safe!
don't worry. nick will fix it!

 i like seeing the backside the lathing, where the plaster hangs. so cool.

in the laundry room looking towards our  current living room

cleaning up the mess

drama and some really great finds!

update!

New header for the three windows in the foyer 

oh but wait!

these three windows were actually three seperate windows. they were held together by one single screw in between every single one. niiiiiiiice. no wonder they were sagging! these three windows aren't fitting toether so well. going to find some replacements! 

in progress. 

SUPER SCORE!!!

new tiles!!! whew hoo!! seven cases for 40 dollars at the habitat home store. the picture below is my inspiration! its going to be fabulous! i hope :)!

and...our new windows. 

we were lucky enough to find two matching surplus windows at

blue ridge salvage and surplus! 

and one more thing. it appears one of the joists under the laundry room is rotten. looks like we got more under the house stuff to address. ugh!!! but at least we have the piece of mind to have some really awesome folks here to help us with these curveballs! wshew!!!!

wednesday/hump day

wednesday

minimal drama today!

front porch ceiling
we ripped down the old ceiling on the front porch and this is what we found: really awesome old bead board. definitely reusing this somewhere!
 we found out a couple of not-so exciting things about insulating. the house has no sheeting.  we have been planning on having a sprayed-in insulation called icynene ( a renewable-based foam insulation and air barrier material that is responsibly made using castor oil and offers numerous environmental benefits). unfortunately this is sprayed in very hot with a lot of force. since we have no sheething or liner between the siding and the cavity where this insulation is normally sprayed, we will have to lay in sheets of blue board. since we intend to rip off the vinyl siding to reveal the original clapboard siding, laying the blueboard will facilitate fixing any damaged board that we might have to repair. otherwise, the icynene would stick to the clapboard siding. that would be a big mess!

foyer looking into library

 after a suggestion from our contractor (who is helping us with these major steps in the renovation), we decided to replace the old bifold door between the foyer and the library with some sweet old french doors.  we think this will really make our library AWESOME!!!!

new 10 foot + ceiling in dining room

newly reinforced window in the living room.
also reinforced where the old windows were enclosed inside the wall.

library

entrance foyer

we decided to vault the ceiling in the living room to create some really cool loft space and storage. but we really love the original wall between the foyer and the living room. we are leaving it intact to crate a cool barrier and maintain the original character of the house. 

foyer

our house now...

new roof