Hey all!
Sorry for not posting lately but I've been super busy with all these different projects I've been working on lately plus getting the Grueling 49 page going. You can check that out here. And the OTHER grueling task I've been getting at for the past few weeks now - here's what's going on in the upstairs!
Ollie's room is lookin a little shabby and not in the good way. Also sorry about the ripped wallpaper in some places. I got a little rip happy before I got any before pictures lol Click the gallery below
Doesn't that look just awful? That wallpaper is older than I am! It had to go, it was peeling on its own.
With windows were in bad shape too. The temperature in this room is not regulated so the condensation built up on them over the winter and thus resulted in mildew. But it's cleanable!
Demolition! - Not really...
We decided to pull back the base boards to see what the insulation situation (say that 5 times fast) was. When you live in a 140 yr old house, updating the insulation is a good idea.
These walls are plaster by the way. Like the really old plaster held together by horse hair. Pretty neat!
So behind the base boards, after breaking up some of the plaster, we could feel nothing but cold air bowing into the house. It felt just like a window was open. Not good. When all the plaster was broken off, we found there was no insulation whatsoever under that big window. The walls were hallow. This explains why the room could never keep a regulated temp. I wonder how much money was lost trying to heat that room over the years...
Of course we all know fixing up part of your house always comes with unexpected costs but this one is definitely worth the fix because it's drafty up here in the winter. Plus the peace of mind you have knowing that that problem is fixed now. Sorry i forgot to snap a pic of the torn out wall before we added the insulation....
The rest of the walls were still alright with the insulation so all we really had to do was refit the baseboards back on the walls. A lot of them were kind of on an angle so they needed to be leveled out.
Now that we have the insulation in, we just need to drywall what we took off of the plaster which is easier said than done because the lath boards were now missing and we need to build up on the studs in order to make the drywall flush with the plaster. We don't want a big indent there...
FYI all this work so far is being done by my father - the expert carpenter of over 30 years. I'm just taking notes and being the trained monkey for now. But I'm learning a lot. And while he was doing this, I was tearing down the wallpaper.
Anyone who's ever tried to take down wallpaper knows how much of a pain in the ass it is. But while "pinteresting" (is that a made up word? Is that a "Dubyaism?" Maybe I'm the original George W Bush...) I did find a good homemade wallpaper remover. I cannot remember who's blog I found it on so if you know who I need to credit, let me know!
4 cups of water, 1/3 cup of vinegar in a spray bottle.
It really helped. I even let it sit for about 5 minutes to really weaken the glue. It wasn't a complete miracle solution but it definitely helped a TON and it was super cheap. There is a reason wall-paperers use wallpaper remover, it's needed.
So in all, this is taking a lot more time and money than I anticipated but I'm super glad its getting done! repairing the insulation AND my son will have his own room which means when he naps and goes to bed for the night, i can actually do work in my room and not have to sit in the dark.
That's all for now! I'll be posting an update soon :)
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