Remember Those Three Little Words?

You know the ones I'm talking about. No, not those words. . . I'm talking about Lath And Plaster. 

In getting ready for framing we had to get busy taking off the rest of the lath and plaster, including the ceilings. 

I think leaving the light in place was a nice touch. 

That's a dangerous room to walk into. 

We got a good glimpse of several of the wallpaper layers. They literally wallpapered every wall and ceiling. 

The rooms are starting to look a little strange. 

The lath went out the window and into the dumpster. 

My best senior worker, back for more!

A little construction detail. 

These guys worked hard. 

We had one special worker. 

His job was picking up paper. He really excelled at it. And was very excited the whole time. 

Debris goes out the window. 

 

It all had to go. 

 

All clean; until we move to the next rooms. 

If It Didn't Fall Down This Time. . .

Several times throughout the project so far, a contractor has said "you know you've got this big hole here, it's not too late to just push the house in and start over." And they're only partly joking. And believe me, there were times I nearly considered it. 

In order to maintain the structural integrity of the existing home while building the new addition we've had six separate concrete pours with at least a few more to go. 

Most recently we took down two dirt pillars that we had left in place to support the old house while we poured most of the basement walls. After the dirt was removed we extended two walls, one of which was formed on both sides and one which was single-formed. 

The dirt being removed. 

We had originally planned to do a lot of bracing to support the existing house, but the ground was so frozen that combined with the new concrete walls we felt like that was enough support to go ahead and remove the leftover dirt. 

This section of dirt was too far inside the   basement for the excavator to reach so we removed the rocks and very frozen dirt with sledgehammers, picks, and a 50 pound air jackhammer. It took about a combined total of 9 hours. We were just a little tired afterward. Ok, extremely worn out is more like it. 

 

Next came the footing forms. 

Getting the concrete to the forms is always exciting. 

This footing took the 19 foot boom on the cement truck, another chute and lots of shoveling. 

 

After the footings set it was time for the walls. 

 

It's a long way down!

The opposite wall was the single-formed one (only one side is formed against an existing wall or embankment). Single-formed walls are difficult to do and require lots of bracing. The pressure of the concrete can easily cause the forms to blow out, letting wet concrete flow out all over the place and making a huge mess. We now know this from experience. That's what happened to this wall. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of the blow-out, but it was as bad as you imagine. It happened right after the wall was completely poured. 

This photo shows the forms being put back up around the cement that actually stayed inside the first set of forms. 

The new set of forms with all the braces. The second time around we braced the heck out of it! Lag bolts on each side and all across the bottom and tons of wood and metal braces. 

Because of the blow-out we had to move the wall out another four inches. It ended up being a huge, nearly 18 inches thick. 

But in the end. . . It worked! And the house didn't fall down. 

These Walls Can Talk

One of the most fun and interesting parts of renovating an old family home is finding treasures in the attic and walls. And when I say treasures I don't mean the gigantic mounds of raccoon poop that seem to be everywhere.   

I'm talking about the books, papers, letters, bottles, and random objects from the past 120 years. 

Most of the personal items in the home were removed before we bought it, but some things are hidden in walls, crawlspaces and the attic. 

Most things come out looking like this. (The raccoon family that made the attic their home for many years really made a mess of things.)  But we also find things like in the next couple of pictures. 

There are some very neat books and magazines in there. Improvement Eras from 1912 and 1917 and others. 

The oldest book we've found so far is called The Contributor, was published in 1891, and belonged to my great-grandfather who built the home.  

We also found a hymnal that belonged to another great-great-grandfather which he took with him as he traveled around to local church congregations teaching hymns. He emigrated from Wales and was said to have a very thick Welch accent and a beautiful singing voice. He composed several songs, but was just as well known for being a prolific blacksmith.  

There is lots of family history here; we hope to make some more.