Let There Be Light. And There Was Light. And The Light Was Good.

I think we must have gone crazy, but we can blame my FIL for that. ;)  When he was over one day to help Jim level the hall ceiling, he asked Jim if we ever thought about knocking down the wall at the top of the stairs.  I don't know why, but Jim and I had never thought of doing that.  It is a small wall that is in no way a support wall.  It was just the other side of a closet. When previous owners rented out the upstairs, they built walls surrounding the top of the stairs and made a doorway to the right of the stairs to basically create a divide between the renters and themselves.  The renters would have no need to come downstairs because they had their own "apartment" upstairs that included a kitchen, bathroom, 2 other rooms, and their own private balcony and staircase to the outside.  This is sadly the fate of many largeVictorian homes.  We are in the slow process of reverting the home back to its more original state of being a single family home.  The outside stairs to the second story has long been gone before we even bought the house, but the upstairs is still sectioned off from the downstairs and the upstairs kitchen is still very much a kitchen.  Anyways, we discussed it and have decided to knock down the wall.  It is basically a now or never thing.  So, we aren't done with demolition like Jim had stated in the previous post.  LOL!  The wall itself isn't the problem.  It is the fact that if we take the wall down, we would also need to remove the upstairs stairwell ceiling and wall to the left of the stairs in order to have the total ceiling level upstairs.  This would increase the original projects scope and would delay our project completion date.  Any delay is a big thing since we have a definite deadline now with the impending arrival of the baby.

Before Shots of the Walls

The 2 green walls in this picture will be removed as well as the ceiling.

 In case you were wondering, the green wallpaper also has a gold glitter embedded in it.  Jim says this is the worst wallpaper in the house.  I disagree.  I feel that title goes to the pilgrim wallpaper in the family room with images of muskets, barns, beehives, and so much more on it. : p

This doorway  to the right will also be removed.

This is the wall from the other side.  Jim had removed a corner closet as part of the original plan already.

We were planning on building another closet in its place, only better.

After Shots of the Small Wall and Doorway Removed

Bye-Bye Wall!

 The light from the window really lights up the stairwell now.  I keep thinking I left the downstairs stairwell light on.  LOL!  That window will definitely need some type of shade or light filter.

Removing that one little wall and doorway has really opened up the space!

Because our master is right there, we have temporarily (once again!) made a make-shift bedroom downstairs.

We were smart this time and brought our mattress downstairs to sleep on.  There was no way my pregnant self was going to sleep on an air mattress for an extended amount of time.  ;)

You can see where the wall and doorway used to be in this pic.

It will be much easier bringing stuff up the stairs and around the corner now.

Since knocking down the stairwell ceiling and other green wall will require scaffolding, that demolition needed to wait for another weekend.

Guest Room Demo Prep

Instead of taking it easy this Labor Day weekend, Jim and I were laboriously working on the guest room.  We pulled up all the carpeting tack and started to pull off baseboards yesterday.  Today, we finished with the baseboards, tore out the window and door trim, and dismantled the closet.  

We discovered a few interesting things while working on the guest room.  

The first discovery was that the orange flower wallpaper used to be an even more vivid orange.  I tried to take a picture of the contrast.

The picture here doesn't really do it justice.

The orange flowers used to be almost red in color.

The second discovery was that the original wallpaper was a red rose pattern.

At least I think it was the original.  We didn't find anymore layers underneath.

The third discovery was that the closet itself was made from an old piano crate.  To disguise this fact, they had wallpapered the exterior and nailed painted cardboard to the interior.

Here is the proof.

The fourth discovery was that the styrofoam in the closet was glued to the walls, ceiling, and floor.  We had to pry some of it off so that we could get to the baseboards.

This is before we removed any of the styrofoam.

This is after we removed it from the floor.

That will be fun to deal with when we refinish the floors. Seriously, did you have to glue it to the floor?

The fifth and final discovery was that the wiring for the light fixture was done wrong (Big surprise!...NOT!).  We decided to take it completely out for now since someone could get electrocuted just changing a bulb.  This of course means we don't have a light source in that room for now.

This is what it looks like now...a hole in the ceiling with some capped off wires.

And yes, that is the load center (aka: secondary breaker box) in the background that we will be moving out of this room and into the hallway.  We aren't too comfortable with it being in a bedroom...especially the bedroom of any future child.

After all our hard work today, this is what the guest room now looks like.

And

Here is a sneak peak of what our floorboards look like under the sad green carpet.

The padding is so brittle, it just crumbles in your hands.

I've measured some of the floorboards, and their width varies between 7-9 inches.  I'm looking forward to removing all the carpet.  This room would look totally different.  

Even though we were hard at work in the guest room, I did manage to sneak away for a little bit to take some  pictures of the outdoors.

First up is my Chinese Lantern Plant

I'm still waiting for it to turn orange.  You can see one yellow blossom in the second pic.

Next up are my mums...at least I think they are mums...

I apologize for the pic quality.  My digital camera screen is damaged, and I can't see what I'm taking pics of anymore.  I just have to point, shoot, and hope I got a good pic.  I overcompensate by taking many pics in hopes one will be good enough.

I managed to solve a mystery today.  The Mystery of the Missing Volleyball.  Way back at our first housewarming, we had a volleyball net set up.  After the party, we noticed that the volleyball was missing.  We figured that it must have blown away.  Well, low-and-behold, I found it today in our grapevine!  It is currently surrounded by blackberry thorns and vegetation, so we decided to leave it there until the plants go dormant.

That is the volleyball in the second pic.

The first pic is some of our grapes guarded by the evil blackberry bushes.

We've noticed that some berry bushes have started to grow alongside our house where we tore out the hedges.  The berries were strange looking to me; they reminded me of very miniature tomatoes.  The berries have now ripened, and I was curious if they were edible.  We have quite a flourishing crop growing.  I finally took the time to research them, and have now identified them.

Can you guess what they are?

They are pokeberries!

Yes folks, Jim and I have a lovely harvest of the very dangerous and deadly pokeberries!  Oh, Joy!  Something else to get rid of.  :(

What's that?  You want to know the side-effects of eating pokeberries?  Well, let me tell you what I've found.

To name a few: severe stomach cramping, nausea with persistent diarrhea and vomiting, slow and difficult breathing, weakness, spasms, hypertension, severe convulsions, and death.

Not only are the berries poisonous, but so are the leaves and roots.

Boo!  More work for Manda.

What Did We Just Do? lol

Today, we finished taking down the wood paneling in the nursery and the guest room.  We now have a good idea what kind of condition the plaster walls are in...not very good.  Jim thinks it would be best to tear down all the plaster and put up drywall.  This means that we have quite a bit of work ahead of us.  Also after removing the paneling, we have a better view of the wallpaper underneath.  Apparently, before the paneling, the wallpaper was a pale blue.  Before that, it was a salmon pink color with gold glitter swirls and blobs.

To continue with our demolition, we also took apart a huge dresser that the previous owners left behind.  It was a nice looking dresser (or rather it used to be before someone painted it green and then someone else tried to remove the green paint).  Essentially, the exterior was ruined.  It is still a mystery to us how that dresser even got upstairs because it was way to big and too heavy to get it there.  We ended up having to rip it apart with a crowbar and hammers.  We managed to save the front legs/corners of the dresser.  I think they look spiffy, and I want to try to use them for something else in the house.  I'm not sure what that might be yet though.  I hope I can salvage them because I think they would make a neat detail somewhere.

Here are some pics of what we did today...

Pics of the nursery before the dresser's demise

Pics of the nursery after the dresser demolition

You can see the dresser legs/corners leaning on the wall behind Jim.

Jim is picking up dresser fragments in the last pic.

As you can see, we have a lot of work ahead of us.  It will get even messier once we start tearing out plaster. Yikes!

One of the interesting things we discovered is that it looks like the closet had molding on the top once upon a time.  This is quite evident by the wallpaper border near the closet.  It seems they removed the molding when they put in the wood paneling...that is a shame.

Oh well, Jim and I are going to be destroying this closet anyways to make a much more functional one.

Since we were on a roll, we also removed the one wall of paneling in the guest room.  I was expecting to find the same orange flower wallpaper behind the paneling that is in the rest of the room, but nope.

Instead, we found this!

This wallpaper matches the curtains that were in this room almost exactly.  Which makes me wonder just how old those curtains actually are.  lol.  As you can see from these pics, a pretty tall baseboard used to border this wall.  It must have been removed when putting up the paneling.

Did you notice the air duct vent in this wall?  The nursery and the guest room share this vent, and it is a direct passage between the rooms.  This afternoon, while Jim was busy removing paneling trim in the guest room, I went into the nursery to get our work gloves.  I decided to toss the gloves through the vent to the guest room.  Next thing I know, I hear a startled cry and some choice swear words, then laughter.   Apparently, Jim had been removing the trim by the chimney when I tossed the gloves through and it scared him.  He said it looked like some kind of frantic bunny creature coming out of the wall because of all the pounding he was doing.  lol. I guess I got him good, and I wasn't even trying.  :)  Serves him right anyways!  Earlier in the day as I was standing by the same vent, he had reached his hand through and grabbed my ankle while making a growling noise.  lol.

Here is a pic of us looking through the vent.

Jim is in the nursery, and I'm in the guest room.

Fortunately, we did not discover any fossilized rat nests or anything else equally gross when removing the paneling.  All we found were some walnuts, 2 marbles, and a penny.

Now to change the topic.  Jim and I discovered some monarch caterpillars chewing up my milkweed plants.  I am totally ok with this, since that is why I didn't let my MIL pull them up.  I wanted caterpillars since that means even more butterflies someday.  Yea!  :)

Fatty Fat Caterpillars

Munch!  Munch!

Well, we had a long day, and I'm tired.  I think I'll veg out and read my newest edition of "This Old House".

Goodnight, Everyone!

We Drop-Kicked the Drop Ceiling to the Curve!

Sorry, it has been awhile since I last wrote.  I just got the tree removal pics from my in-laws, so I should be posting those in the next week or so.  In the meantime though, I can tell you what else we've been up to.

We have finally started our next major project(s)...the upstairs hallway, nursery, and guest room.  We were going to start working on Jim's office downstairs next, but we changed our minds.  We want to start a family sometime in the next year (I'm shooting for a summer baby), so we need to get started on the nursery now.  This being an old house, there is a potential for lead paint upstairs, and I can't be pregnant while remodeling it (too dangerous for the fetus).  This being the case, Jim will have to continue living with a pink office for the next couple of months.  Sorry, Jim!

We have removed the dirty, gross drop ceiling in the upstairs hallway and nursery.  This was an all day affair, and of course, Jim discovered more MacGyver electrics.  For example, the hallway lights were attached to the drop ceiling itself and not the actual ceiling.  They also obviously didn't have a stud finder while looking for studs to anchor the drop ceiling, because we found a couple series of holes in the ceilings.  You'll see what I mean in the pics.  When we removed the first few panels, we discovered wallpaper on not only the walls, but the ceilings as well.

What Lies Beneath!

The first pic is in the nursery.  It seems to have a lovely teal wallpaper beneath the paneling.

The second pic is out in the hallway.  It is more of a brown rope braid and blotchy pattern.

These are pics of the hallway shortly after removing a few panels.

The hallway is "L" shaped, so these pics were taken from the same corner.

Hallway after pics

The 1st and last pic are taken looking at the "L" corner.  You can see our tiny attic access in the last pic.  Only a  thin guy can currently get up there.  We are looking into expanding the access and possibly putting in an attic staircase.  The middle pic is me taking a water break after all the hard work.  I remember it being quite hot that day.

After the hallway, we started in on the nursery drop ceiling.  Fortunately for us, the guest room doesn't have a drop ceiling.  The only drop ceiling left in our house now is the one in the master bedroom, and that one is in much better condition so it is being spared for now.

Nursery Before

The ceiling in here was more difficult to remove since it was practically up against the actual ceiling.

Nursery After

More ceiling wallpaper with old water damage.

Here are the pics I referred to earlier with all the holes.

Where's that Darn Stud?!

As you can see, there are a lot of holes in the ceiling.  Whoever made them probably didn't care because they would be covered up by that awful drop ceiling and left for the next owners (us) to deal with.  Thanks, Jerk!  The first 2 pics are out in the hallway, and the last is from the nursery.

These are just pics of us during the work.

I'm in the nursery, and Jim is in the hallway working on temporary hallway lighting.

The next step is to take down the fake wood paneling in the nursery.  So far, we have one panel removed.  It is taking a bit longer than we thought since we can't remove the panels until we do other steps first...

Remove corner trim...check

Pry up edge of carpeting all along room...check

Remove baseboards...check

Remove window and door trim....not yet

Remove wooden framework around chimney...not yet

Pry up carpeting tac around room to avoid stepping on it...probably good idea

Dismantle/Remove large, heavy dresser from nursery...need to at some point

When I was prying up the carpeting, I discovered a nickel from 1965 under the padding.  So, I guess this means that the carpeting was put in sometime after 1964. We also discovered what looks like a secret "loose floor board" compartment in the nursery closet floor.  It was nailed shut at some point though, so we haven't explored it yet.  We will pry it open though before we finish remodeling the nursery.  The previous owners seemed to have taken anything cool from the attic, so I don't really have high hopes for this either.

And of course, what is remodeling without some injuries, right?  I whacked myself pretty good in the throat with a crowbar trying to pry up some stubborn trim.  The spot is a bit tender, but no bruising (that would have been fun to explain to Jim's relative's at the reunion this month.  lol).  Jim managed to slice up 4 of his fingers on the exposed carpet tack when impatiently trying to remove a baseboard without gloves.  Don't worry, it wasn't too bad.  I finished removing the baseboards the next day while Jim was at work though.  It would probably be a good idea to look into getting ourselves tetanus booster shots.  :)

And now, what blog of mine would be complete without pics of animals or flowers!

A cool silver bodied dragonfly

My overgrown phlox and hydrangeas

Until next time!