Last Sunday the weather was nice enough so my sister and i set out for Centralia to work on the Ugly Duckling....lovingly called the Duck.
I started on the back room....the smallest room. I needed to pull down the trim at the ceiling and floor all around the room. and pull off the paneling. i also needed to take the trim off around the windows and french doors coming into the room. that was the day's plan.
This paneling was the older stuff.....heavier, thicker. i gave some thought to painting over it but just took it down. This is the north wall before removing the paneling. notice the lovely iron pipe that someone hung across the room....clothes rack? who knows. but it was installed with a 2 foot section of 2x4...adhered to the wall with 9 or 10 2 1/2" screws. even i know that is overkill. and you would have had to have been a very tall person to use it....that's a 10' ladder.
Here it is on the other side. there is a broken window there...hence the scrap of old plywood. i'll bet the neighbors love me already. hahahahahaha
First order of business was removing trim from top and bottom...all around the room. not too bad. then unscrew all those screws to take that pipe down. note...by hand....no electric screwdriver (no electricity)...no battery powered screwdriver. i am tough...LOL then removed light switch covers and plug covers and pulled them sideways and stuck back in hole so i could remove plywood. took down ceiling light fixture glass cover and bulbs...because you know the first piece of plywood that i pulled off of there was going to break that light fixture.
I worked for 5 hours and got all the paneling off. i was cussing whoever put it on there. when they went around the windows...instead of cutting out the paneling to fit around the window sills....they cut off the back part of the windowsill and put the paneling behind it. well, when it is in a corner, you cannot pull that back out of there without splitting the window sills....so, 2 window sills are split. damn it! they can be repaired or replaced when new windows go in.
Here we are with the paneling all down. this is the north side...where the iron pipe was hung. as suspected, this used to be the front porch and they closed it in. that is why there is plywood there to cover the holes. this is the outside wall of the house...but with another closed in porch on the other side of this. i have to decide if i want to put a window or 2 there or build a closet or shelves there.
Here is the other side after paneling removal. looks better already with that piece of old plywood off the window...doesn't it? i think i removed 5 or 6 whole sheets of paneling and then lots of smaller pieces that were cut to fit. the only saving grace was that they didn't glue them down and didn't use a hundred nails to put them up. under the paneling was just more plywood to cover the space from the former porch. i gave a few minutes thought to putting windows in all 3 of those walls...which would make it very light and bright and i would like it a lot. but then where would shelving go to hold supplies and stuff. this room will be an extension of my studio room and will need to hold supplies, a desk, and the embroidery machine.
And here is the side facing the street.
So, paneling is down. i saved the trim from around the windows and french doors in case i want to use it again. it took a bit of time to knock all the nails out of it and pull out hundreds of staples. even though these windows have storm windows on the outside....whoever lived here put plastic all over the windows and stapled it to the trim. i just love people...NOT! i wrote on the back of the trim where it came from and duct taped the pieces together for each window and door. since they will have to be stripped and holes filled...i figure a bit of duct tape residue was not going to hurt them at all.
There is some wood still around the bottom of the floor that i have to pull up. not sure what the purpose was...but the bottom of the paneling was not nailed down and was set behind these pieces of wood so i am thinking they used them as sort of 'baseboard trim' for the paneling. stupid!
I also pulled down the lovely cardboard type ceiling panels. they were 12"x24" and sort of fit together like tongue and groove wood. they were stapled up there so i have about a million staples to take off those 2x4s. once again i can't decide if i should leave the 2x4s up there and put whatever ceiling i use over them. they will be a bitch to get down since they are the full length of the room. there is a plaster wall under them with lath strips. there was a hole where the roof leaked and the plaster came down and i could see that there was no insulation up there. it will require a trip to the attic to see what's what up there. also, i have not found an attic access hole yet...problems, problems. LOL
Under the paneling was this unusual wallpaper on the bottom half of the room. i almost like it....just the pattern, mind you. of course, someone painted over it before they covered it with paneling.
So, there is my 5 hours of work. when i go back next time i will pull up those boards on the floor around the perimeter and take the ceiling fixture down. i know i have to take that wallpaper and plaster down but am leaving that for another time. also the next trip for demolition i will start in the office area...next to the bathroom. i need to expose that wall between those 2 rooms to make sure it is not load bearing so i can move it over a couple feet. fun times!
Check out the next post for work my sister did in the studio area and the treasures she found in the pocket door wall.
I started on the back room....the smallest room. I needed to pull down the trim at the ceiling and floor all around the room. and pull off the paneling. i also needed to take the trim off around the windows and french doors coming into the room. that was the day's plan.
This paneling was the older stuff.....heavier, thicker. i gave some thought to painting over it but just took it down. This is the north wall before removing the paneling. notice the lovely iron pipe that someone hung across the room....clothes rack? who knows. but it was installed with a 2 foot section of 2x4...adhered to the wall with 9 or 10 2 1/2" screws. even i know that is overkill. and you would have had to have been a very tall person to use it....that's a 10' ladder.
Here it is on the other side. there is a broken window there...hence the scrap of old plywood. i'll bet the neighbors love me already. hahahahahaha
First order of business was removing trim from top and bottom...all around the room. not too bad. then unscrew all those screws to take that pipe down. note...by hand....no electric screwdriver (no electricity)...no battery powered screwdriver. i am tough...LOL then removed light switch covers and plug covers and pulled them sideways and stuck back in hole so i could remove plywood. took down ceiling light fixture glass cover and bulbs...because you know the first piece of plywood that i pulled off of there was going to break that light fixture.
I worked for 5 hours and got all the paneling off. i was cussing whoever put it on there. when they went around the windows...instead of cutting out the paneling to fit around the window sills....they cut off the back part of the windowsill and put the paneling behind it. well, when it is in a corner, you cannot pull that back out of there without splitting the window sills....so, 2 window sills are split. damn it! they can be repaired or replaced when new windows go in.
Here we are with the paneling all down. this is the north side...where the iron pipe was hung. as suspected, this used to be the front porch and they closed it in. that is why there is plywood there to cover the holes. this is the outside wall of the house...but with another closed in porch on the other side of this. i have to decide if i want to put a window or 2 there or build a closet or shelves there.
Here is the other side after paneling removal. looks better already with that piece of old plywood off the window...doesn't it? i think i removed 5 or 6 whole sheets of paneling and then lots of smaller pieces that were cut to fit. the only saving grace was that they didn't glue them down and didn't use a hundred nails to put them up. under the paneling was just more plywood to cover the space from the former porch. i gave a few minutes thought to putting windows in all 3 of those walls...which would make it very light and bright and i would like it a lot. but then where would shelving go to hold supplies and stuff. this room will be an extension of my studio room and will need to hold supplies, a desk, and the embroidery machine.
And here is the side facing the street.
So, paneling is down. i saved the trim from around the windows and french doors in case i want to use it again. it took a bit of time to knock all the nails out of it and pull out hundreds of staples. even though these windows have storm windows on the outside....whoever lived here put plastic all over the windows and stapled it to the trim. i just love people...NOT! i wrote on the back of the trim where it came from and duct taped the pieces together for each window and door. since they will have to be stripped and holes filled...i figure a bit of duct tape residue was not going to hurt them at all.
There is some wood still around the bottom of the floor that i have to pull up. not sure what the purpose was...but the bottom of the paneling was not nailed down and was set behind these pieces of wood so i am thinking they used them as sort of 'baseboard trim' for the paneling. stupid!
I also pulled down the lovely cardboard type ceiling panels. they were 12"x24" and sort of fit together like tongue and groove wood. they were stapled up there so i have about a million staples to take off those 2x4s. once again i can't decide if i should leave the 2x4s up there and put whatever ceiling i use over them. they will be a bitch to get down since they are the full length of the room. there is a plaster wall under them with lath strips. there was a hole where the roof leaked and the plaster came down and i could see that there was no insulation up there. it will require a trip to the attic to see what's what up there. also, i have not found an attic access hole yet...problems, problems. LOL
Under the paneling was this unusual wallpaper on the bottom half of the room. i almost like it....just the pattern, mind you. of course, someone painted over it before they covered it with paneling.
So, there is my 5 hours of work. when i go back next time i will pull up those boards on the floor around the perimeter and take the ceiling fixture down. i know i have to take that wallpaper and plaster down but am leaving that for another time. also the next trip for demolition i will start in the office area...next to the bathroom. i need to expose that wall between those 2 rooms to make sure it is not load bearing so i can move it over a couple feet. fun times!
Check out the next post for work my sister did in the studio area and the treasures she found in the pocket door wall.
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