Today was another session of tearing out the bedroom. I was able to remove about 1/3 of the lathe on the walls, leaving the 2 walls with insulation for now. While tearing out the lathe, I found some old newspaper pieces shoved in the corner as “insulation”. I was able to get 2 pulled apart that had dates on them and they were from October 1913! Hopefully next weekend there will not be another snow storm that eats in to my time to work on projects.
5/5/2020 Update
It is finally that time of year where I can continue my work outside. The bedroom will be put aside for rainy days as I get the attached garage torn down, the roof re-framed and shingled and start on the siding. With the first order of business in tearing down the garage, will have to remove that first to do the roof since they built that over the original roof, but they did it very poorly. After that I have to remove the FOUR layers of shingles they have on the main house, add a frame over the top and extend the overhangs out to two feet to help shed water from the foundation. After all that is done, I can then put some new shingles on, add some proper soffit, and then get the siding going.
4/28/2020 Update
I have finally finished the floor for the bedroom. I added 5 1/2″ EPS foam insulation on the floor, a layer of OSB since the floors in the adjacent rooms were 1/2″ higher and then finished off with 3/4″ tongue and groove sub floor. All this is held together by both floor screws as well as structural SIPs adhesive on every layer. This floor will never fall apart and I hope no one has to rip this up because the entire floor is all one piece now. I had to raise one corner over 1″ to get it level since the original builders had it at a slope. This is the last thing to do on this bedroom for the moment, now that the weather is nice, I can focus on the roof and fix all the leaks before I start finishing.
4/23/2020 Update
It has been an interesting couple of weeks since the last post. With having to move all schooling online and trying to get work done around the house as well has been an adventure. With the the concrete finally dry enough to put weight on them, I have starting to install the adjustable posts and supporting beams. With the weather getting nicer and finally changing to spring, things should start moving a little easier. Hopefully thing weekend I will be able to have the complete sub-floor installed. Since I work for a SIPs company, I will be installing EPS throughout the entire floor allowing for a higher R-value, and using a specific SIPs adhesive it will become structural as well. After the sub-floor is in, it will be time to put that room project on hold and start to put my time and effort to the exterior, using the bedroom as a rainy day project.
04/06/2020 Update
Unfortunately this portion of the remodel is one of those hurry up and wait moments. Since the last couple weeks have just been digging post holes and regrading the crawl space, I haven’t had too many updates to post that are really visible. I finally have all the new support piers (6) dug out and poured, but again it’s a hurry up and wait game where I have to wait 2 weeks for it to be dry enough to support the weight I want them to. While I am waiting I will be ordering the new adjustable posts and working on some problem areas of the the foundation. With the weather looking like it is going to be changing to spring here shortly, I will be able to start sharing updates of the attached garage tear down, re-framing the roof and shingling.
3/23/2020 Update
Been an interesting couple of weeks in the world and haven’t had as much time to get on here for my last weekly update. I have still been busy on the room in the time that I have. I have finished all the walls, tore up the floor and have started tearing out the sub-floor to start working on adding new supports in the crawlspace and leveling out the floor. With the weather starting to turn in to spring, hopefully it is getting close to the time where I can start working on the outside of the house again as well.
3/8/20 Bedroom Remodel Update
Had a fairly productive day today. Was able to get the closet completely removed and half of the upper part of the walls finished. The amount of plaster I have had to clean up in just this one room is crazy, there has been over 3000lbs on just the walls alone that I have disposed of. Next week I will be able to finish the rest of the walls and the false ceiling framing and then get started on tearing up the wood floor.
03/01/20 Update with short video walkaround.
A Bit of a short day today compared to the last few weeks. I was able to get the first ceiling down with just the frame left to cut out. I got part of the closet out and traced some live wires that I came across that I will have to reroute next weekend to move forward. Hopefully complete the ceiling frame tear out and the rest of the closet next weekend.
Sunday 2/23/20 tear down
Another Sunday and another day for stripping down the bedroom. Finished the visible walls other than the closet with the tear down and put in some temp insulation for these fun cold days. Unfortunately as old houses go, my plans to do the ceiling last is not going to happen. Like a couple other rooms in the house, the ceiling in this room is a dropped down ceiling to cover up the old plaster and lathe ceiling. There is actually another 6 inches of wall above this ceiling so will have to tear down that before I tear down the closet since the drop ceiling is being held up partially by the closet. Other than that, just another fun day of cleaning up blown in insulation and tearing off lathe.
Sunday 02/16/20 tear down
Another fun day of working in the bedroom. Completed taking the lathe of of the back wall as well as all of the blown in insulation. Not a big fan of having to clean up the blown in insulation on every exterior wall. Put it some temp insulation to keep the cold out as well as make it easier to take out once it is time to put in the finished product. Next weekends plan is to finish the last exterior wall tear down and then get ready to tear out the closet.
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