Up Is Down!

We've turned the 2nd floor of the farmhouse upside down and inside out. The innards are the outards and the outards are now in pieces all over the floor and in plastic bags. We put two days of work into the house this weekend, successfully removing all of the plaster and insulation from the remaining two bedroom walls. We are leaving the destruction of the ceilings until the end, primarily because that will be the messiest part of this whole business - more to follow on that next week.

Earlier this week while Dan and I were at work, Dad took down the plaster ceiling in the master bedroom. I spent part of my Saturday helping to shovel pieces of the ceiling into bags.

Those bags look so innocent - barely full. Each one weighs a ridiculous 100-150 lbs! My arms really got a workout with these. 

We tore apart the other two bedrooms. Bedroom #1 (which we call the Blue Room) had one wall of drywall and a few smaller ones of plaster. Removing drywall was a bit more challenging, but Mom took it down like a boss!

We uncovered a fireplace in the Blue Room, It wasn't a surprise - we knew it was there, but we were really surprised by the amount of nasty in it. When the previous owners boarded up the fireplace, they neglected to block the chimney, so there was about 50 years worth of petrified birds nest, dirt, decayed bricks, and maybe some dead animals? Pretty gross. 

We are going to leave the fireplace open in this room. It needs a bit of brick repair, but I think that it could be really charming to leave it where it is, perhaps giving it a mantle. We'll block the chimney so it will be decorative rather than useful. And obviously we'll clean it out!

While I was digging out one of the walls, I found our first mouse. Scared the jeebers out of me, but I didn't have the heart to hurt it because hanging on to the mouse's tail was a baby mouse. It was so cute, and way to fast for me to get a picture of it. 

Bedroom #2 was a mess. That didn't stop my husband or my mom and dad in law! The three of them took down three wall and a ceiling worth of plaster. 

There was a bit of a surprise in the corner that my mom in law was working in. When the lath was torn down in that room, lo and behold, a 3-4 foot long beehive. 

Thankfully, it was abandoned, and there were no pesky bees or wasps to deal with. I can't wait to seal these walls to keep the mice and the bees out. 

Once we clean up all of the plaster on the floor, it will be on to the destruction of two useless chimneys, ceilings and tossing everything out the window!