Let's start this post with some more demolition photos! Yeah! (Can you tell I'm in a good mood?)
For those of you who remember the original house tour photos (one of the first posts), you will remember that the house had 3 built-ins on the East wall (where there used to be 4 windows, but now there's a building). One was just a small shelf in the Laundry Room/Kitchen (upstairs), one was a bookcase (the one below), and then there's also an odd looking curved top shelf in the Office.
The laundry room (now being called the Guest Bedroom) had the shelf (and everything else in the opening) removed last year, but I decided to do the same with the L Room wall bookcase.
For the longest time, I was thinking of simply replacing these with nicer versions of the same thing, but with matching trim (like the windows/doors). But now, I'm reconsidering this. In the upstairs bedrooms (Guest Bed and L Room) having the built-ins in those two walls REALLY limits furniture arranging options. Even if I have the built-ins high enough off the floor, I think it might just be better to not have them. This seems a bit sad, since it was an option to do something fun/cool, but like I said, it will make the rooms much more useable. Your thoughts? Nothing is 100% decided yet.
This was the tear-out of the bookcase. Please note that the thing is covered in dozens of coats of paint, and it was also damaged in one corner.
Removing the trim revealed MANY layers of wallpaper. The last one had flowers (Chrysanthemums?) with thin black leaves/lines. The really unusual thing about this paper is that it looks like it's hand printed. Like... with paint. You can sort of see the details in the photo where the edges of the different colours on the paper have small ridges of paint around the edges of the "stamps" used for the different parts. This just seems so ODD. This paper can't be THAT old, but it's reminding me of the type of hand printed papers I've seen in homes built in the 1840-60 range. It looks too detailed to be a DIY project. Thoughts? There's only a small section of paper, and I removed as much as possible (to save it).
There are several weird things about these built-ins (where windows used to be). It looks like the opening was originally blocked-off (flat) with 2 vertical wood side boards, and tongue and groove wood scraps nailed over this (then drywall). Later, someone removed some of the upper t-g boards, and fitted-in this bookcase. This seems like the most likely scenario, since the vertical (since) boards wouldn't have needed to go the full length (up/down) if they were fitting the bookcase originally (plus there are nail holes along the edges of the vertical boards). The cement (from when the building next door was constructed), fills the entire width of the window opening (between the side boards). I still think it's very odd that they didn't board-up the window openings from the OUTSIDE of the house before constructing the cinder block building next door. They did remove the original exterior window trims (sill, casings, and crown), so there would have been lots of room to install some 3/4" t-g or plywood/scrap wood to end up flush with the exterior siding around the windows. Instead it looks like they just capped the window openings from the inside of my house, and then they built the building next door (thus all the glops of cement.
Also, that pile of brown fluff is probably an old mouse nest. There was nothing in it.
Cleaned, and empty opening. And yes, that cinder block is the building next door. There's MAYBE an inch of space between the two buildings, and on that side, I have the original cedar siding.
OFFICE CEILING!
Since I moved the duct work over towards the corner by quite a lot, it meant that I'd have to patch the ceiling (and later, the floor). I decided to do this last night. It didn't really take that long, since I decided to use some of the original (and mostly ruined/broken/splintered) t-g from the kitchen (I had removed about 4 boards from the wall a few weeks back). This t-g is the same as what's used on the ceiling, and also the same as what was used for the chimney stack/cubby in the kitchen.
Before:
Looks like a mess...
But with a little bit of sanding, and some really good primer...
A second post about the bathroom will be posted in the next 15-20 minutes!
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