This may not have been the most efficient way of removing the old drywall but it was certainly the most fun.

I’m shooting the video from the old guest bedroom and you can see the old kitchen on the other side of the wall. That entire wall you see me pan over at the end of the video is coming down and the resulting open space will become the master suite.

(click on an image for a larger view)

I keep finding these rather scary structural alterations that have been done to the house over the last 140+ years. Sadly, some of it has impacted the original brilliance in which the house was built (things like cutting off load bearing headers above a doorway so as to run electrical wire across).

I snapped a few pictures of the rather tame hacks I just found yesterday. Click on the first photo to view the full size image so you can see how slick that particular piece of work is. My favorite is the middle photo. Obviously somebody cut the stud a bit too short and was much to lazy to re-cut, instead they used a small chunk of wood to make it look like it’s doing something. The last photo is a bit tough to see but there is about a 1/2″ gap above the top plate on what is suppose to be a load bearing wall.

We were standing in the old kitchen shading our eyes against the garish bright yellow color when the shyster previous owner of the house told us she was really good with color. pfffft, right. Thankfully, the color had to go anyway since we ripped out the cabinets.

Plans have changed once again and we decided to shift things around a bit. The large room that you enter after going upstairs is now going to be a library/Rachel’s studio. The back room is going to be a guest room. The bathroom will stay where it is. The old kitchen and old guest bedroom will be combined into the master suite and span the entire front of the house. This space will take advantage of all three of the windows on the front of house and provide some really nice light.

As you may be able to see from the photos, we are down to the studs on the separating wall. I just need to do some load bearing tests before we completely remove it. Photos 1 and 2 are taken from similar angles so you should be able to get a sense of the relationship between the two rooms that we will be combining. Photo 3 is basically from the opposite side - shooting in towards the old kitchen. (If you click on the images for a larger view you can see some descriptive captions).

I had all but given up on the old kitchen floor. I counted 4 layers of linoleum, 2 layers of tar paper and 2 subfloors. The initial plan was to simply add another layer to the already bloated behemoth. Then, our current landlord Steve Pennington stopped over to the house and set me straight. He suggested that I just needed the correct tool and he would bring it over. He showed up the next night with a 4 foot pry bar and proceeded to work with me for the next 2.5 hours ripping up the 8 layers of flooring. Incredibly, we removed every single layer - all the way down to the original flooring. As you can see from the last photo, it is a patchwork mess but perfectly salvageable.

(click on an image for a larger view)

After a brief hiatus in the NYC, we are back for more home work. The photo shows Nate & Julia looking for directions. Our Saturday night/morning: staying in the city until 6:30am, getting lost in Jersey City, being locked out of our sleeping place and after finally breaking in being awoke 2 hours later by the landlady screaming about “zee pipes” - it was a surreal experience but a nice break.

The second photo is of the newly revealed chimney. At one point it was entirely covered with plaster and now just requires a couple passes with a wire brush to clean it off a bit more.

The third photo: dum dum dum dum dumpster. Dumpster Mike (no lie) came over and dropped of this great dumpster which is filled by a small bucket toss out of the second floor window.