Sadly, we had started work, so we were both dusty and dirty when we had to break for supplies. With a work scarf on my head and plaster dust on my shoulders, I am sure that I presented quite a sight at the store. Thankfully, we could hang around all the aisles with the contractors, so they looked just as bad as we did!
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| We removed the upper part of the wall and all of the lower tile except for the area behind the toilet. |
Our main focus today was to finish the lower part of the wall we started yesterday and to remove the north wall that contains the hallway door. By doing so, we would expose the wiring for the switch and for the lights. Rick also wanted to get the soffit removed, and we were able to accomplish all of that today.
We have learned that if we can get a long crowbar behind the layer of tile/ plaster/ wire mesh, we can pry off fairly large chunks at a time. We were able to do that this morning, so the lower part of the vanity wall was down much more quickly than we had expected. While Rick did most of the prying and muscle work, I did a lot of hauling large chunks and buckets of debris to the dumpster. We have the dumpster about half full now.
The upper, rough-plastered walls are fairly easy to remove since they have a drywall backing instead of a plaster and wire backing. When Rick was completing the upper part of the wall that he started yesterday, though, he came upon a nasty surprise. Water has always been the enemy of any structure, and Gladys is no exception. We know that at one point she had a tile roof which eventually leaked. While the roof was changed almost 15 years ago, the damage from the leak remained in the wall above the toilet. What we found was not water stains, but rather black mold.
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| Black mold coats the corner drywall above the toilet as a result of a leaky roof over a decade ago. |
Since my immune system is still compromised, Rick would not let me get near the mold or help him remove it. Thank God for the Internet which gave us some good ideas on how to rid a house of black mold. One of the things we purchased at the store was a commercial product to spray on surfaces that contain black mold. Rick started by removing the moldy surfaces and then spraying what was left with the chemicals to kill and seal the area from further mold growth. He also sprayed all of the wood that he could not remove. We were fortunate that the moldy area was fairly small (probably 16 x 30 inches) and that we were able to stop the mold before it spread further. Thankfully, new drywall will solve lots of problems!
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| Rick exposed all of the electrical connections on the north wall next to the door. |
The drywalled upper walls also made getting to the electrical connections on the north side of the room not difficult at all. Since the tiled lower wall was fairly narrow, we also were able to remove it in a couple of large chunks. Thankfully, the wall right next to the door jambs came out in large pieces, so we did not have to get near the jambs with any prying tools. Whew! That was a relief!
As he suspected, Rick found that most of the wires were dry and needed replacing, so he started to pull out the old wires. We will replace the whole system with new 14/2 grounded wire so we know we are secure. Once that wall was exposed, Rick moved on to the soffit.
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| Rick works on removing the structure that supported the soffit above the vanity. |
Naturally, the blown-in insulation that we had put into the attic a few years ago made a wonderful mess. I currently have three full bags of insulation that Rick scooped out of the hole he cut into the front of the soffit.
I often wonder why the builders of the 60s were so enamored with soffits. While they do provide a convenient place to hide ductwork and electrical wires, they also waste a lot of room and make a space look and feel smaller. We had removed a soffit in Gladys' kitchen a few years ago and found no duct work and only a couple of small electrical wires in the whole thing. I gained lots of cupboard space by using that area for taller kitchen cabinets.
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| We used 6 mil plastic stapled to the rafters to temporarily seal off the attic and to hold the insulation in place. |
The same wasted space was evident as we began to remove the bathroom soffit today. The cavity was hollow since the ductwork already was above the rafters in the attic, and the only things inside the soffit in addition to lots of insulation were the wires for the two 1960's "tulip" lights which hung over the vanity.
Since the soffits were overhead work, they were a pain to remove, but by mid-afternoon, they were all in the dumpster. The tulip lights followed in short order. The result is a room that is visually taller and seemingly more spacious.
We are happy with the progress we have made thus far. Tomorrow Rick will replace all of the wires and will temporarily set up a small light so we can see what we are doing as we continue to remodel the last room in Gladys.
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