Now that Matt has moved into my study, we’re ready to start tackling the demo work on his study (well, he’s starting the demo, I’m still trying to tame all my crap in the other room). The main reason we decided to work on this room next is because it is currently the grossest room in the house. While we have plenty of rooms that still need a good ‘ole paint-and-style, this is the room that actually needs WORK.
Whomp whomp.
Do you see that trim? Matte-black, skinny trim in a 115+ year old house? Are you kidding me?! Half the reason I love old houses is for the big, chunky, amazing trim! This makes me want to cry.
And the ceiling… we had this same nasty acoustical tile treatment happening in our dining room. I’m terrified of what we’re going to find underneath it… but it absolutely HAS to go.
We’re also missing a closet door in here…. and it’s currently Matt’s closet. We’re planning on getting a wardrobe for the master bedroom so he can keep is clothes in there, but I still want this closet to have an actual door. Thank god it’s a standard size at least!
What you can’t really tell from the pictures is that these walls we also all paneled at some point. It’s actually fairly hard to tell in person too so I think the paneling may have gotten skim-coated too. We’re a little on the fence about what to do about the paneling. And by “we” I really mean me (Matt doesn’t want to deal with the walls at all). It’s honestly pretty inoffensive in person so the tentative plan is to leave it alone unless it gets damaged as we rip the trim out.
This past week Matt already got started on the demo and took out all the ceiling tiles.
Wow… that is nowhere near as bad as it could have been! We’re a little concerned about some of the bigger cracks causing issues when we rip out the furring strips, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the moment! Hopefully all it will need is some crack repair and a fresh skim coat…hopefully!
We also found some more awesome electrical work! And “awesome” I mean wtf? It’s been a total crap-shoot if fixtures here have an electrical box and/or modern wiring or not and this one seems to be another not on both counts. I want to get this light wired to a switch anyway and adding an electrical box isn’t a huge undertaking. I am a little concerned that an electrician will want to redo the wiring as well. It’s not a bad thing by any means, just a more expensive thing.
We spent Christmas in Wisconsin and then brought Matt’s mom and brother back with us. If there’s one thing college boys are great for, it’s manual labor, so we put him to work with Matt.
The furring strips were soon removed. And the ceiling stayed up! I was a little concerned that the furring strips might be propping up some of the cracked areas, but so far so good!
The offensive trim soon followed the ceiling into the garbage.
The paneling took a bit of a beating in the process so Matt is finally coming around to just taking it all down and re-drywalling. It may be a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it in the end. I’m hoping the ceiling just needs a skim-coat. I do NOT want to deal with the ceiling so I’m hoping for a budget-friendly project that can be hired out.
Most of the demo was done with pretty small pry-bars, about 1 foot long or so. They’re better for getting into tight spots. We’ve got a 3 footer too which is better if you need a lot of leverage. As sissy as the tiny ones look though, they’re super useful to have around.
Here’s to ending 2016 on a destructive note! If we had a fire pit we’d probably be ending it with a bonfire as well. Hopefully we get it all put back together next year.
