An Archaeological Dig Through My Walls

Behold: a wall of beautiful faux wood paneling in a nice beige-with-a-touch-of-salmon-for-the-people shade. Now, pretty much anyone who sees a wall like this has the same thought, and that thought is, "What more could one want from a wall covering? This is the most perfectly stunning wall covering I have ever seen!" I know! But wait, it gets better!


Here's what I found underneath! I know! It's like I won the lottery. Bucept instead of foldin money, I was awarded a lifetime supply of shiny, wood-like decor! And yet, oh yes, there is more...


Here's what was underneath that. Yepsies, what you are looking at is the same orange artichoke and mushroom-bouquet wallpaper that I found in the upstairs kitchen. These archaeological digs of mine are sort of helping me get the vibe of the former floor plan , and I guess this room (the large upstairs living space with the belly-button windows) was once several rooms and one corner was a part of the glorious, citrusy majesty that was the former upstairs kitchen. So yay! More of that. But... guess what was underneath?

Some awesome split-pea green lead paint! Luckily it comes off in big wheezy, brain damaging chips. Which is how I discovered what was underneath...
Some really delicate, hand painted daisy wallpaper (ehem ontheceilingtoo) which I kinda love. And you can already see what I found underneath that - this really bold green wallpaper which looks Victorian to me. click to enlarge.

So - that's all for now - does anyone know how to get layers of stuff off without ruining all the stuff underneath? I would love to be able to get a better look at the wallpaper on the very bottom layer.

Dad Labor - Installments # 3 and 4

Since another weekend has gone by filled with proj-ing, I figure I'd better get the backup of posts from my Dad labor extravaganza series up. Both Dad and Joe have been bugging me about when I'm gonna post the shots of the stone wall they built. It was brutal work and they were (are) pretty damn proud of how it turned out. Here are a few during pics. 

Note Dads headband. The sweat situation was not a joke. They don't have humidity like this in Montana. But seriously I think he wore it because of a secret longing to look like Keith Richards (ala Pirates of the Caribbean). 

The deal with this section of the wall is that a car crashed into it before we  bought the house. The wall has been standing for a hundred years and it's one of the first things we noticed about the house when we stalked it on MLS. We love it. Now it's even more special. Ok barf. But seriously!  

Now all it needs is the cement cap (not our first choice but that's whats there - so we need to match it. Note the cap on either sides of the menfolk. So anyway - tadah!

Where was I you ask? Um... I think I was upstairs hiding under the bed because the prior three days of hard DL had kicked my lily ass. 

And now for part 4... So last Friday during Dad week. We drove down to Brooklyn, picked up Joe and a moving truck and then filled it with stuff from our apartment AND our storage space. We also stopped by a friend's new apartment and picked up this...

She's going through demo and let me dumpster dive. Isn't it gorgeous?  I got the sink and faucet and everything! It will look great in our downstairs bathroom (someday).

Then we went by the used refrigerator dude in our hood and grabbed a fridge to make the whole camping experience a little more civilized (we'd been living with a dorm fridge till then). Not too gorgeous but hey - it cost $180 and it isn't too much of an energy sucking behemoth. So it'll do. It really sets off the skanky counter top and scabby linoleum(s) nicely I think. I got that groovy breadbox for a dollar at a Hudson "trash or treasure sale" the next day.

So yeah - then we* drove the full truck of stuff upstate and THEN unloaded it all into the house. My poor Dad... that was just day three!

*ok in the interest of full disclosure I'll admit that I was strangely absent during much of the unload. There's a rumor going around that I was hiding under the bed again. But I will not confirm or deny this sort of nonsense. 

Dad Labor - Installment # 2

The day after the shopping and downspout installation day, we decided to demo the ugliest ceiling in the house as well as a beat to hell floor. Let me remind you of it's beauty... it was a dropped acoustic tile ceiling with... wait for it... rolled-on cottage cheese OVER that. Held together in many places with... wait for it... duct tape. Oh the creepiness. Anyway, here we are mugging for  a self portrait. 

Here's the ceiling coming down. So crispy. So shimmery. So cancery (I'm guessing). It occurs to me now that we should have been wearing  the organic vapors masks and not the useless dust masks. Oh well. I guess the fact that it was a hundred and fifty degrees in the room pickled our brains. Feel free to enlarge for a horror closeup.

Here it is all down.

Sadly - this plaster ceiling is sort of beyond salvaging. But God help me I don't want to deal with tearing another one out. We will probably put either drywall, bead board or tin on top of it and just leave it there. In a million years of course cause it's so low on the list of pretty shite I wanna spend money on. 

Anyway - next we tore out the worn down pine floor. There had been several reconfigurations of this room and so the wood flooring was only partial. Some spots had fancy linoleum. Yep it was dreamy. Regardless, my father was deeply pained by this and went on record as saying he was against it's removal. Duly noted Dad. Now admire the gorgeous wide plank subfloor. I Loooove it. 

What I didn't love? Pulling out the three thousand couture nails that were holding it in place. What's a couture nail you ask? Well check it out people. Every nail in this floor was handmade by a blacksmith. They are all square head and very gorgeous in their old-house-porn kind of way. 

I collected them all. Seemed like the right thing to do. I think they should probably stay in the house like some kind of religious relic.

 

Fall Out

Although Joe did all the walls (and the entire kitchen) we actually let Chester's dudes demo the paster ceiling in the living room. They didn't close the doors to the one room where we were storing everything so I came in to find everything looking like the aftermath of Mt. St. Helens . This is my prize leather rhino which my parents bought at Liberty of London before I was born. needless to say I wasn't thrilled - but I got it cleaned up pretty quickly and all is well throughout the land.
I'd also moved a bunch of art up there which also got really dirty. These two on the left were done by my old friend Matthew Brannon. He's in the friggin Whitney Biennial this year (maybe you've heard of it?). So yeah, I'm going to have to start taking better care of all my beloved paintings!
Arg....

The Carnage

This is the dining room with the creative bricklaying fireplace in it. We've demo'd the ceiling and some interior walls in order to deal with plumbing and electrical issues. The bad news is that it looks like beyond the friggin thunderdome. The good news is that half of the house has completely new electrical. So we are now 50% less of a fire hazard.

This is a door to the hallway we've discovered. It appears to have been framed out around the door so I think it will be safe to take back out - but we have to double check with someone who isn't me :), the resident know it all.


Don't even ask about the rasta ladder. I have no idea. Chester, "Angry Santa," the contractor must have left it behind.

How Not To Make The Neigbors Love You

We knew that Chester had demo'd a ceiling for us while we were busy working in Brooklyn. But we didn't realize how much garbage that would generate, or that he and his dudes would drag it into the backyard and leave it there. Anyway - it was pretty major as you can see. This is the view from the back window.
ps: people have asked if that white building in the distance is a neighbor's house - nope that's the two car garage. It has a great hayloft upstairs too. But anyway - behold the garbage that we have to deal with asap.

Hey, since we are back here anyway let's take a look at our awesomely functional gutter system.


Then I went around to the side of the house and realized there was more crap that had been tossed into the side yard. Thank God that house is for sale so there's no one over there glaring out from between the curtains calling us the garbage neighbors.

Speaking Of Crystal Meth

This is the room we dubbed the Crystal Meth room when we first saw the house. There's just something about the paint job that screams "I've been locked in here for a month playing solitaire under the black light." It has problems that our brain just couldn't handle right away. So we've decided to use it as a holding cell for all the rubble and wheezey carpet wads until they can get picked up and taken to the dump. Apparently there is a Hudson guy that will take anything to the dump for $35 a truck load - so we haven't had to deal with $$$ dumpster delivery. But we are waiting until our steps and walkway aren't so dangerous and icy. It's scary in there. Just focus on the pretty doorknob - focus on the pretty doorknob.....

Kitchen Demo Continues

So the dropped ceiling is down. Joe had to take down the tin ceiling and the plaster ceiling above that because of years of leaks rust and over-all nasty bidness. So three layers of fun!



Here area few sheets of the tin that he saved for me. I'm planning on using it for a back splash - but I'll have to take a hard look and see how much there really is to work with...

Every surface has been peeled...


Original wallpaper - this kitchen is part of a 40's or 50's addition.

Pretty gnarly huh?

A Preview Of Hell To Come

Joe and Mat pulled off a few
rows of acoustic tile to see what we are dealing with on the ceilings. This one looks pretty good which is a relief. Aaaaaaaand then here's a picture of what not to do when attempting to remove fabu-fake wood paneling. I'll let you guess which one of us was responsible for that... actually it was a family affair and we will happily share the blame.

Day One Continued

Here is what I affectionately call the murder-scene kitchen. I love how they decided to leave up the ruffled curtain with the arching splatter of rust. This room would give any one of those professional home stagers a nervous breakdown. It's one big - where to begin - festival of nastiness.

and after the dropped ceiling removal... Jury is still out about saving the tin ceiling. Probably not gonna happen. But I'm hoping to save enought o turn it into a nice backsplash. we'll reuse whatever we can salvage.

I'm not a big lover of blinds - but these are about a billion times less crusty than the original "window treatments."