Whatcha doin????

True, but if a house has been renovated over the years and nobody knows what was done or when it was done it's hard to do, short of cutting bits out of every room. If I was selling I don't know that I'd let a potential buyer cut bits out of every room unless they also paid to fix up the holes they made.

 

And you need a dough hook. Doesn't shake if you don't turn the spead to high.

 

Fun with Falling Fragments.
Today was the day I decided to pull down most of the last few parts of the ceiling in the room I've been working in. One patch was right in one corner so I got that, then pulled a patch in another corner, then realised that the pile of laths was right where I needed to be. But then I realised that I could just about get at the area I wanted to work by reaching from the stairs, so pulled some more down. Having bagged up all the rubble my accumulated collection ran to 22 bags of it, plus three big stacks of compressed cardboard ceiling tiles that I'd pulled down. I could barely move so took all the bags of rubble and most of the ceiling tiles to the landfill. I only took most of the ceiling tiles because I ran out of space in the back of the car.

Tomorrow morning I hope to get out back and burn the pile of laths. There's still a small amount to pull down but some of it is around a live light fitting, so I need to make arrangements for that before I go much further. What I'm probably going to end up doing is cutting the cables, connecting them to a simple light fixture as a temporary measure so I can see while I work, and make plans to replace the whole lot with something a little more permanent - I've got a bracket that will take the weight of a ceiling fan so will most likely put that in place.

Once all that is done the room will be ready to be rebuilt, barring a few minor considerations relating to working in the room above it. It will also mean I can move the pile of insulation boards into that room while I pull down the rest of the ceiling in the room currently hosting my panels. Of course having a stack of 20, 8x4 sheets 2" thick makes it tricky to work around them. Once I've got the ceiling down in there I can really push forward hard to start getting things rebuilt.

It makes a nice change to be thinking about rebuilding rather than endlessly looking at what needs to be wrecked next.

 

Forgot to say, a few stubborn nails refused to come out of the ceiling joists when I fought them with a 12" pry bar. So I rolled out my new toy, the 36" wrecking bar. Not only could I attack the nails from the floor without needing the ladder but having three times the leverage meant they resisted for a short time, then gave the distinctive sound that indicated they had released their grip on the wood, and shortly after that they were out. I think I got seven nails out faster than I could have removed one with the pry bar.

 

I've got to build a dog house. Hopefully less drama than your place.

 

Less drama than my place should be easy enough to manage.

Here's a tip to keep drama down. Design it, build it, be done with it. If you build it, then extend it 25 years later, then rearrange the internals of it, then rearrange it all again, then divide it in half, then rewire parts of it, then design something but change your mind half way through implementing it so redesign it on the fly, you'll have problems later. Of course with a dog house you can just burn the thing and start over. I'm sometimes tempted to do that....

 

If you decide to burn it down let me know, I'll bring the marshmallows.

 

I just got done loading old laths and ceiling tiles into my burn barrel. It's smoldering away nicely now. Bring some marshmallows if you want

 

Those raccoons are pretty fearless. And way too clever.

 

Back from the mountains. Hiked/climbed about 1100 metres elevation gain to where we wanted to be, then only remained there for about 15 minutes as the clouds rolled in and snow was falling on us. Enough time to grab a few samples and get the heck out of Dodge. Our boots were waterlogged by then and felt like we were pumping water - that was even with high-end Goretex boots. Temperatures were way below normal, something like 10°C below seasonal.

Good news for next year. They are rebuilding the logging road that was washed out several years ago.

 

Trying to figure out the best way to get some beams down from a ceiling.
What I'm up against is pieces of 2x4, about 12-13 feet long, nailed in place at both ends. The nails are the toenail type so it's really hard to get some of them out. I can handle the weight of a 12-foot 2x4 easily, just not from the very end of it. So I need to work out how to get the nails out of one end (cutting the beam if necessary) and then getting to the other end without the whole thing breaking and landing on the floor (or, worse, landing on me). Then I need to get the nails out of the other end and figure a way to lower the whole thing to the ground without gravity doing its funky stuff and accelerating the process.

For now I think I'm going to start pulling down the lath-and-plaster ceiling that's a few inches above the 2x4s. At least that way I can keep moving forward and hopefully figure out where a particular cable runs. I'm really seriously hoping that one of my external lights has a simple two-core cable feeding it. If that's the case I hope to be able to replace it with a nice new piece of 14-gauge without too much trouble.

 

With all the work Tango is doing, it sounds like this house must be about 32,000 square feet.

 

Abandoned warehouse perhaps?

 

I suggest a hammer.

If that doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

 

It sometimes feels like it. There's always something else to do.

Today's Fun With Falling Fragments unearthed another long-abandoned mouse nest in the ceiling and another wiring surprise. I do so like wiring surprises. On a positive note I think the wire to the outside light is a nice simple two-core doodad that I'm hoping doesn't then feed the other outside light. If it's what I think it is, it should be relatively straightforward to replace it with a new one. Assuming nobody decided to nail it into place or something, which will mean I need to take down parts of the porch. I'm really hoping I don't have to do that. Then I just need to figure the best way to seal the hole around the cable. Might be time for another can of building foam.

 

In the immortal words of Satchel Paige, "Don't look back never. They might be gainin' on ya."