After removing the chimney from the second floor, we decided to continue removing it in the kitchen so we would have better kitchen efficiency. Steven swung a sledge hammer from the hole in the second floor. he antique bricks are gone from the house to a pile outside. This time Steven removed the bathroom window and we threw the bricks out that space. We have a large pile of bricks now.
We had been trying to sell the old fuel oil tank and fuel oil boiler for weeks. In the space of a few days we have sold both and have a lot more open space. We also put out an old storm door for someone to take.
We had planned to keep the chimney and leave it exposed for an old world look. It posed space problems so we decided to remove it. After we had removed the bricks to the level of the ceiling, it started to lean and was very unstable. The mortar between the bricks was soft and the bricks came off easily. We took it to the floor and then threw the bricks out the bedroom window to the ground below. I tripped on the tarp in this process and landed on my knee and shoulder. It hurt so much I thought I might have broken something so off to Urgent Care! X-rays showed now break thankfully.
The kneels are cleared above. Shingled roof to the right will remain as a gable. The second story had to be covered with tarps at the end of each day to protect the contents of the first floor.
Day 1 Crew begins removing the roof down to the 2′ 7″ kneewalls. First day almost completed over bedroom 2. Window is a triple window Steven and I removed to repair and insert back into the north wall of bedroom 2.
We want to save the window to the north on the second floor. It is old wavy glass and paneled glass.
There was a crack in the glass in one of the panels when we purchased the house. There is also a crack in one of the lower panels from someone throwing a rock or shooting a pellet. We have a window we are removing from the bedroom on the first floor that also has wavy glass that we can use to do repairs. The wood sill has some water damage so we will use wood hardener,
Steven had bagged many bags of insulation from the second floor. We needed to remove it to make room for work on the second floor raising. They were heavy and Steven didn’t want to carry them from the back door to the dumpster, so we took a long folding table and situated it on the top step and the top of the dumpster. Steven kept pushing the bags along it until they started to fall in. His chuckle at the end is full of pleasure!
We had been using the front open porch as a storage area.
It was time to clean it up. First task was organizing the maple flooring for an upstairs bedroom.
Steven had rescued it from a gymnasium many years before.
We also organized the free railing materials we had gotten from a ReUse store.
We turned our attention to the first floor and removed plaster and lathe. We have filled 5 Bagsters so far.
We applied for our building permit – it took over 4 weeks for approved. Many blueprint changes in the last weeks. We have removed all the tile on the wood flooring. We will have natural wood floors throughout the first floor (only exception is the bathroom). It has been dirty itchy work.
We are continuing to remove plaster and lathe. We have filled 5 Bagsters as well as a few garbage cans. There is still much plaster lying in the house. The lathe has been divided into burn piles and piles for the large future dumpster. The upstairs is basically gutted except for the bathtub and the wall behind it.
