Monday, April 30, 2012

2nd Bedroom - Part 1: Demolition

Saturday marked the first day of a week long push working on the second bedroom. Day one was all about demolition. I popped out one of the windows and pulled off all of the gypsum board from the walls. I left the ceiling intact since it's in okay shape and hanging gypsum board on ceilings sucks and I don't want to do it if I don't have to.

Here are a couple of stitched panoramas of the room before I started.  We've be using the room primarily for storage and the occasional guest.  The shed allowed us to empty it (but it was hard to keep the two-year-old from moving right in).

I was very curious what I'd find in the walls.  Would there be any insulation?  Dead rats?  A bag of silver dollars?  Here are a couple more photos of the room minus the wall board.

So... what was found?  Well, no insulation.  Not surprising considering the mold growth on the walls.  Also, no headers above either of the windows.  I guess the walls were built either before headers had been invented or the people who built the walls didn't believe in headers.  I did find a dead rat.  It had been dead for a long, long time.  Another thing I found (and I expected it) was a opossum den under the bathtub (which was revealed since wall board doesn't typically get run below the bathtub.  There was some water damage in that area, too.  But nothing so horrible that it made me cry.  And believe me, this house has made me cry in the past.

I loaded 780 pounds of gypsum board into the truck and went to the transfer station to dump it before it absorbed any rain.

I'm framing a new wall to accommodate some future bathroom expansions and a new closet for the second bedroom.  When I pulled up the carpet and old vinyl tile in this area... wow!  I was very surprised to find a beautiful old wood floor!  I looks like fir.  And it really is gorgeous.  We're going to keep it and try to rehab it (lots of sanding and then either oil or polyurethane).  I think the wood floor runs into the hallway, too.  So excited!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

More Flowers

The lone tulip that comes up every year.


Here's a blossom of a lipstick strawberry.  They are most flavorful that the Tristar Everbearing ones we have.  But they don't produce as many strawberries.

Here's a photo of the most common flower in the backyard right now.

And there is still a daffodil holding on.

They're not flowering, but here's a photo of the blueberries budding out.

Monday, April 02, 2012

Spring Flowers 2012

A crocus and and miniature daffodil come up!


And the big white daffodils are being eaten from the inside by slugs! You have to love the Pacific Northwest!