Day Thirteen: Nothing and Everything
I made it home late tonight, and when I finally wandered around the house looking at what Dave and John accomplished today, I originally thought they had done very little. But I was wrong. The more I looked, the more I found. First off, they carted away all the junk I had laid out for them, which was a great relief. But they also opened up the dining room fireplace to plan for a pipe chase, removed more of the kitchen ceiling, removed almost everything from the walls of the bathroom, removed most of the floor of the bathroom, and removed all but a few pipes and the lights of the vanity.
The Wonderful Brickwork of the Dining Room Fireplace
Here's what the masonry of the dining room fireplace looks from the side. Not very impressive. Nothing we would want exposed for people to see.
Looking Down on the Brickwork
If you look down on the brickwork, it looks even worse: uneven, mortared messily, more of a pile than a stack of bricks. Since I knew this fireplace would be exposed today, I called George and asked him to consider how they could remake this fireplace into something attractive. He'll be here on Wednesday and see what he can come up with. Another change order. Oh, joy. But I think this change is pretty essential.
White Goop over Fake Brick over Ugly Red Brick
One of the problems George will have to consider is what to do with the face of the fireplace. For over a dozen years, we've been staring at this white goop (which looks almost like calcified meringue), but beneath this (we can now prove) is nothing but fake brick (the most hated of all decorative enhancements to a house), and under that is the ugly brick. My only hope is that the ugly original brick isn't so messy from the front.
The Open Dining Room Fireplace and the Box Holding our Corner Shower Rod
Here's the fireplace from the front. Not too attractive right now. The box leaning against it is the box that holds our corner shower rod. I'll be installing that fairly soon, but I'm waiting until I have more time. And I'm hoping we'll be able to continue using our regular shower for a little more time.
The Open Dining Room Ceiling
The open dining room ceiling isn't much to look at, but it's making me wonder if it's possible that we could remove this entire dropped ceiling, thus raising the ceiling and taking out the soffit entirely. I've asked Dave and John this.
Burnt Board under the Dining Room Ceiling
Here's a great find: what appears to be a burnt board, broken in half and nailed just under the kitchen ceiling. What this means is beyond me, since there is no other sign of burned wood in this area.
The Place Where We Shower
This beautiful area of the world is where we take our showers now.
The Wet Subflooring by the Shower
And here is evidence of all the water damage caused by this shower. We knew water had dripped out of the shower over the years, hurting the floors, but this goes far beyond the damage we imagined.
The Shower from Behind
When I looked at the shower from behind, I noticed that Dave and John removed almost the entire vanity today. No problem there. We hadn't used that sink in a while, since it no longer had a mirror. We've been using the mirror on the third floor.
The Remains of the Kitchen Vanity
Besides the lights over the vanity, all that is left is these few lights, slowly burning out.
The Interface between the Hardwood Planks and the Plywood Subflooring in the Second-Floor Kitchen
We had seen that a bit of the hardwood floor was left in the batroom. With the supersubflooring removed, we could see that this flooring was left in just a smallish area of the bathroom.
The Clearest Wall in the Bathroom
This is the wall that is parallel to the hallway upstairs, and this is also the one most cleared so far. Soon, the whole place will look like this--though only temporarily, since they will have to get insulation back in place on the exterior walls soon after removing it.
Wires and Bits of Lath Holding back Plaster Bits
And here's my favorite part. This is a small piece of the wall of the bathroom, near the top of the wall and by the slanted closet accessible from the third-floor landing. Note that the last set of "remodelers" have set up little scraps of lath to hold a few measly scraps of plaster. Anything to keep the garbage inside the walls of the house.
honi soit qui mal y pense
The Wonderful Brickwork of the Dining Room Fireplace
Here's what the masonry of the dining room fireplace looks from the side. Not very impressive. Nothing we would want exposed for people to see.
Looking Down on the Brickwork
If you look down on the brickwork, it looks even worse: uneven, mortared messily, more of a pile than a stack of bricks. Since I knew this fireplace would be exposed today, I called George and asked him to consider how they could remake this fireplace into something attractive. He'll be here on Wednesday and see what he can come up with. Another change order. Oh, joy. But I think this change is pretty essential.
White Goop over Fake Brick over Ugly Red Brick
One of the problems George will have to consider is what to do with the face of the fireplace. For over a dozen years, we've been staring at this white goop (which looks almost like calcified meringue), but beneath this (we can now prove) is nothing but fake brick (the most hated of all decorative enhancements to a house), and under that is the ugly brick. My only hope is that the ugly original brick isn't so messy from the front.
The Open Dining Room Fireplace and the Box Holding our Corner Shower Rod
Here's the fireplace from the front. Not too attractive right now. The box leaning against it is the box that holds our corner shower rod. I'll be installing that fairly soon, but I'm waiting until I have more time. And I'm hoping we'll be able to continue using our regular shower for a little more time.
The Open Dining Room Ceiling
The open dining room ceiling isn't much to look at, but it's making me wonder if it's possible that we could remove this entire dropped ceiling, thus raising the ceiling and taking out the soffit entirely. I've asked Dave and John this.
Burnt Board under the Dining Room Ceiling
Here's a great find: what appears to be a burnt board, broken in half and nailed just under the kitchen ceiling. What this means is beyond me, since there is no other sign of burned wood in this area.
The Place Where We Shower
This beautiful area of the world is where we take our showers now.
The Wet Subflooring by the Shower
And here is evidence of all the water damage caused by this shower. We knew water had dripped out of the shower over the years, hurting the floors, but this goes far beyond the damage we imagined.
The Shower from Behind
When I looked at the shower from behind, I noticed that Dave and John removed almost the entire vanity today. No problem there. We hadn't used that sink in a while, since it no longer had a mirror. We've been using the mirror on the third floor.
The Remains of the Kitchen Vanity
Besides the lights over the vanity, all that is left is these few lights, slowly burning out.
The Interface between the Hardwood Planks and the Plywood Subflooring in the Second-Floor Kitchen
We had seen that a bit of the hardwood floor was left in the batroom. With the supersubflooring removed, we could see that this flooring was left in just a smallish area of the bathroom.
The Clearest Wall in the Bathroom
This is the wall that is parallel to the hallway upstairs, and this is also the one most cleared so far. Soon, the whole place will look like this--though only temporarily, since they will have to get insulation back in place on the exterior walls soon after removing it.
Wires and Bits of Lath Holding back Plaster Bits
And here's my favorite part. This is a small piece of the wall of the bathroom, near the top of the wall and by the slanted closet accessible from the third-floor landing. Note that the last set of "remodelers" have set up little scraps of lath to hold a few measly scraps of plaster. Anything to keep the garbage inside the walls of the house.
honi soit qui mal y pense
posted by Geofhuth at 11:49 PM
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