Demo Continues!
We can now see daylight through the parts of the house that will be open in the finished house! They’ve done an admirably surgical job in selectively removing the plaster where needed and leaving it intact where possible, even within the same room (and only part of a wall, in a few cases).
Well, isn’t THIS a lovely addition to our front yard! Evidently they didn’t get the memo about the color scheme (the Gamble House exterior restoration in 2004 had a custom BROWN construction trailer out front!). I wondered if it was delivered after the giant dumpster blocked the driveway, but apparently not, according to the security camera.
This lovely scene, above, was our bedroom and will be a kid’s room. The wall at far right and the adjacent wall (behind camera) still have their plaster, as does the ceiling. They did a nice job with the removal. The opening on the right was the closet doorway and will become the entrance to the room in the new plan. The doorway at left was not original to the house; it was cut through to the dining room at some point and was then, later, closed up again. We knew it had been there because they didn’t even bother to make the frame flush with the surrounding lath so there was a door-shaped lump in the plaster in our room! Nice craftsmanship, former owners…ha.
And what’s under that plaster? Waaaay more knob and tube wiring than we thought we had still in place. It’s fine if it’s in the ceiling and just powering a single light bulb, but you don’t want to load it with all the devices with which we load an outlet these days—so I am told by a reasonable electrician (i.e. one who’s reasonably cautious but not of the MUST EXPUNGE ALL K&T NOW school). Here is a post with more about period electricity.
Look at all that good 1910 lumber! And 1910 wiring!
This is kind of the fun part because the scene changes every day! One has to enjoy the fast-moving stages of the project while they last, because once the waiting sets in and it feels like nothing’s happening, I know that gets to be a drag. The house is going through a LOT right now, but I feel strangely optimistic when I see it rather than mourning all the destruction. We are in good hands, I believe.