34. The Last Lath... For Now Anyway.

This will be a Sporty Shorty.  It's late and I'm going to be back early again in the morning.

The job of the day was to demo this wall.  I started by opening that window for the first time in forever - it was screwed and nailed AND painted shut.  It originally had cranks that would open it up but they're gone - the hinges are still functional once I whacked them a couple of times.  I picked up some handles and latches for the time being - I'd love to get the crank operational again, but not sure if that's going to happen.  There was such a wonderful breeze blowing in there today while I was working!

After I knocked down the plaster, and removed a couple of really poorly installed drywall boards, this is what was left.  The outlets weren't even fastened to anything but the lath!  I discovered the old plumbing - which is interesting because this is where I planned to have John install plumbing for the kitchen sink.  I added all that broken up plaster to the custom driveway I'm working on.

This is a little dark, because it's later on in the day and the light was so bright coming in the window.  I had to adjust it a little in photoshop so you could see the studs etc.  That funky looking thing on the right is a nasty old vent fan for the stove that is coming out tomorrow.  Also barely affixed in place.  All cleaned up and I even vacuumed every piece of wood in that wall - no more bug doodie!

Here's a closeup of what's in the wall - see the old lead drain pipe and former plumbing supply lines.  That one piece of wood going across right under the window has some rot, either from leaky plumbing (most likely) or water coming in the window.  The bad wood isn't supporting anything important, and it's not bad enough that I need to replace it.  The supporting studs are solid as ever.  You can also see the giant hole that goes right into the basement... this was under the stove!!  Great place for a rat to make a nice little nest... vacuumed that up too.  I can't believe someone would go through the trouble of putting in a new floor and leaving such a gaping hole.  Oh well, it's an easy enough fix. 

It's hard with a project like this to know when to stop - you can't leave everything the way it is, and you can't tear everything out.  I like to clean it up back to a point that I can safely build upon, and know that there's nothing left hiding out in there.  Especially in the kitchen.  This is the last of the big demo though, so the really messy stuff is done.

When I was done with the wall, I took a lunch break, and then began some work on the electrical plan.  My goal is to have all the boxes in place and ready to run wire into the basement when Steven comes with me on Thursday.  One of us will be downstairs and one in the kitchen, and that way we can see which wire goes where and so on.  Then all that's left is the plumbing (I'm trying to be patient and wait for John to call me) and then I can get the drywall up and it will look a little more civilized.

Tomorrow some guys are coming to begin removing the old chain link fence, and prep the site for new wood posts and then fence panels.  I'm going to finish up my wiring and a few other things.