So I mixed up some Durabond joint compound and skimmed the disaster to make it ready for paint.
And while I had the mud out I might as well hit the other bits in the house that needed mudding.
right place.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Honest, I was just going to clean the shower
But then I took a closer look at the wall paper above the shower and figured it was getting a bit nasty.
So I started to tear it off, and wouldn't you know it, I made a whole lot of work for my self.
The easiest was to pull the vinyl facing off leaving the paper backer. Then hit the paper backer with wall paper remover, wait 10 minutes and scrape it off. This is a taste of what awaits me for the rest of the house as the whole place was wallpapered before we bought it.
So I mixed up some Durabond joint compound and skimmed the disaster to make it ready for paint.
And while I had the mud out I might as well hit the other bits in the house that needed mudding.
Like the stairway drywall that had never been taped and plastered.
But then there was a whole lot of trim that looked like it had been milled with a chainsaw, complete with gaps you could throw a cat through that was in the way, and I thought I might as well tear it out and plaster all the drywall joints that junk was hiding.
And then I thought while I was making a mess in the stairwell I might as well open up the ceiling for the skylight that I had installed when I re-roofed the place, but due to the wires for the lamp in the way, I was hesitant to tackle before and just sort of forgot about. So I wound up doing some electrical work as well.
And since I will need to do some drywall repairs to the ceiling I might as well keep going and tear the rest of the junk out of the way. So now I can crawl in the eves and run a proper duct for the bathroom vent to keep the moisture and mold at bay. And add some better insulation in there as well.
Then Annie comes home and admires my mess and how much light we have pouring down the stairs. And I figured, hmmmmmmm
Lets see . . . . draw a nice straight line following the slope of the stairs
And tear out the two layers of 50 year old drywall.
Honest . . . I don't know what happened . . . I was just cleaning the bathroom
And now we have a hole in the kitchen wall
Is it any surprise they only used 2x3s instead of 2x4s? not a single nail matches the previous one I pulled. If there was a way to monkey-rig things in this place the previous owners had found a way.
Now that is much better, and it opens up the entry so you are not staring at the edge of a wall when we walk in the house.
Makes for a bigger kitchen as well
And since I just got some sheet-rock I might as well tear out the old stuff in the back room that was damaged when I replaced the windows.
And replace it with new drywall to make the joint taping simpler. I even got the electrical box in the
right place.
And the other one in the back room gets insulated and filled in
And patch the bit in the bathroom that has been hidden by the curtain since I replaced the window.
I think there will be a bit more tearing out and a whole lot of wall paper to remove now. But for now I am pleased with where we are going with this.
So I mixed up some Durabond joint compound and skimmed the disaster to make it ready for paint.
And while I had the mud out I might as well hit the other bits in the house that needed mudding.
right place.
¡! Seguro puedes estar muy contento con lo que has hecho.
ReplyDeleteD.
Si, hoy seguimos con la aventura. He terminado de quitar el cuadrito del cielo raso de la cocina sobre la entrada para que el cielo raso de las escaleras llegue hasta la puerta. Ahora a hacer las de electricista porque tengo dos cables que atraviesan.
DeleteI was convinced I EFTA comment in english
DeleteHa Ha, That's mi friend Doug in Argentina. He said I must be happy with what I have done
DeleteTranslated from Spanish my response reads: The adventure continues today. I finished taking down the little bit of ceiling over the front door so the sloped ceiling in the stairwell meets the door. Now I have to do more electrical work as we have a wire running across it.
thank god my husband never cleans our bathroom! he did decide to paint the front steps about 3 weeks ago and the entire porch has been torn apart for all this time.
ReplyDeleteWell Jaz, you what they say about the cobblers kids. I started rebuilding the house 5 years ago when the cat brought a mouse up from the basement and while searching where it might have come in we found a rotted corner. I just kept going around the house. I replaced sheathing, insulation, windows, roof, siding and trim. The outside has been done for a few year now but for the sake of my sanity and marital harmony I left the inside as was. The wall paper everywhere had me stumped. Just too big a job to remove. But I think I found a method that will work so I don't have to drywall the whole place again.
DeleteThank god I don't have a husband to clean my bathroom and i am doing it alone:)
ReplyDeleteYes I know what you mean Yael, but it was about time I finished the project I started 5 years ago. Yes we have been living without trim on the windows that long, skilfully hidden by curtains of course. I mean if I suddenly kick the bucket Annie would be stuck with an unfinished house. And it was one of those domino sort of situations. Before I can finish the window trim I needed to repair the drywall, and plaster the joints, and before that I have to remove the old wall paper. And it all happened because the cat bright a mouse from the basement 5 years ago.
DeleteI was thinking may be I should delete that comment. it does not look good. i know. The thing is that i have a terrible sense of humor:) My house is also 50 years old and there are so many things to do. never ending story i know.
ReplyDeleteNo its quite OK Yael, I understood what you meant. This was a poor mans house in 1937 when it was built. And a succession of poor folks have lived in it ever since, all of them contributing to the calamity of half done cheap work, cutting corners every possible way. I don't think anyone ever has done as much to it as I have..
DeleteThis is what the outside looks like now.
http://isserfiq.blogspot.com/2014/07/hosewashing.html
and at the bottom of this post is a photo of what it looked like before I rebuilt it.
http://isserfiq.blogspot.com/2012/09/replacing-old-fence.html
I shall look . It is interesting for me to see how other people are geting over the not so perfect house, like mine.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! This is just what I'm like - one thing leads to another. I remember going to rip up the old carpet in our last house while my wife was at work. She came back and I'd ripped up all the floor boards as there was woodworm! Good job and the stairs look so much better for the extra light. A day well spent I'd say (now just make sure you finish it all if your anything like me!)
ReplyDeleteHa! Kev, that reminds me I also need to yank that carpet in the stair well. With all the light in there now you can really see how grungy it is. What are the chances the treads are all junk so I'll need to replace them and it will turn in to a stair job? And then there is the shagalicious circa 1972 orange swirl deep pile carpet in my computer room upstairs. As far as interrupted projects I think I have you beat.
DeleteShagalicious! Love it!
DeleteSome jobs never end! lol
ReplyDeleteYes Gorges you can say that again. And the cobbler's kids have no shoes. It sort of goes with the territory. I know one thing for sure. I am never buying an old house again. Next one I am building myself.
DeleteThat's the way things work up here on the mountain, as well. There's no such thing as "quick and easy."
ReplyDeleteYes that's about right Harry. I'm in to the wiring now, and its all got me scratching my head. Seventy years of monkey rigged wires. Its a mess.
ReplyDeleteYour attention span matches mine. And that's why we may complete a job, but we are never finished.
ReplyDeleteHi Mark: Yes, I keep jumping on to the next thing, or is it previous? that needs to be done before I can move forward. I have been at the wiring for 3 days trying to sort that nightmare out. And just the reason I never originally cut out the drywall for the sky light when I installed it 5 years ago. I have a new panel with 25 or so breakers but just one 15 amp was feeding 3/4 of the house.
DeleteOh how I sympathise. You start with a tiny, 10 minute, job, and you end-up spending the rest of your life putting it all back together; and even then you need to get someone in to finish it.
ReplyDeleteOh I'll get it done all right, its just a mater of when. I have been fighting with the wiring or what passed of it for the last six days. I think I finally got to the bottom of it. It is frightening what the walls hide after 70 years of hacks messing with it. I will do a post on it soon, but tonight I am too beat to bother.
DeleteI call this the 'butterfly effect', loved this post probably because its so familiar :)
ReplyDeleteHi John, yes I do this sort of thing for a living so I basically know what to expect, so it does not faze me at all. It is just a bit inconvenient doing it while you are living in the house. I am fortunate in that I have a very tolerant wife and by now she is used to coming home to find the place torn to bits. She is even happy to help with clean up or run to the basement to flip a breaker off and save the damage to my knees.
Delete