Austin versus the ceiling...

today while working on the house i demoed the front bedroom ceiling, the back bedroom and bath, and half of the middle bedroom ceiling. i was removing the plaster and lathe from the ceiling when i got to the light in the middle of the ceiling. instead of just smashing it with the crowbar i decided to remove it first so i wouldn't have to sweep up broken glass. i stood under the light and started to unscrew the screws that hold the face plate to the ceiling, but i couldn't see what i was doing because it was so dusty in there. i took off my goggles to see better. i removed the screws and gave the face plate a gentle tug when basically a large section of the ceiling came crashing down right onto my upturned face. most of it fell away from me, but the wallpaper on the ceiling held strong where it was and basically clocked me in the face like a trap door. i saw STARS. the impact knocked the respirator off of my face and ended up around my neck. once i got hit in the face i immediately leaned over and put my hands to my face. when i straightened up i looked at my hands and realized that they were covered in blood. i could feel the warmth running down my face, but i wasn't sure where it was coming from because my face was black from the soot of the ceiling dust... i ran down the garden where i had a stack of mirrors saved for the mosaic i saw where the cut was. right across the bridge of my fucking nose. i was a little panicked. i'm a vain gay boy who likes his face the way it is.. so after realizing what i needed to do i grabbed some toilet paper, pressed it against my nose, grabbed my keys, my bike and biked over to my house a few blocks away. i had to take a shower to get the soot off of my face, and the warm water on my nose was like getting hit all over again.

here's what i looked like after i got out of the shower....

and here is what it looked like after i got it all cleaned up.

thankfully it was only a half inch gash across the bridge of my nose, and not a gash across my eye. although i do have some scratches on my eyelids. plaster corners are friggin' SHARP.

so tomorrow when i go to TLA to work, ill have a slight shiner, and a butterfly stich across my nose... hopefully people wont think im in some kind of fight club or worse.

but all in all, i consider my self lucky. and from now on, im going to keep my goggles on when working, even if i cant see.

i probably should have just smashed that light with a crow bar. that might have been more fun.

debris haul out number one.

On wednesday, my good friends Aaron and Tom helped me haul out the first phase of demolition debris from the new house. i rented a uhaul truck to schlep it all up to the richard burns trash transfer station. It was a very exciting day. I picked up the Uhaul at around 11:30 and got to the house by noon where tom was waiting for me. we got to work hauling all of the old crumbling drywall that was stacked in the back yard out to the truck which was a tricky job because it literally crumbled in our arms. we made a mess of it, but it was probably the easiest part. when aaron got there we were just getting started on hauling out stuff from the house. I tried to make it as easy as possible to haul it out before wednesday by bagging everything up in contractor bags and stacking them in the living room. The first few bags i loaded were way to heavy as i was a little overzealous filling them. i didnt think about having to move them. after about 6 bags, i started half filling them since plaster weight adds up quickly. we had one bag mishap when it got caught on the trailer hitch and spilled out into the street. it was a mess of wallpaper, linoleum, cotton insulation and drywall scraps. we got it cleaned up and swept up the dirt in front of the house and we were on our way to north philly to unload it. i couldnt help but remark to tom and aaron that it was odd that we were taking the trash from our middle class neighborhood to a really run down neighborhood in a part of town i didnt know existed. it was kind of terrifying. the houses up there had bars across their porches and steel security doors. it was very bizarre, but probably out of necessity. it made me think about things a little bit more than i have before. anyway....we made it safely in and out of there..

the trash place is awesome. its totally contained in a cirty block by 25 foot high concrete walls.. its full of huge piles of trash and lumber and there is a large backhoe which made me think that the whole place is sort of like a post apocalyptic coin operated claw machine.. it was cool to see the bulldozer drive over refrigerators and lumber with ease. watching all of the philly roughnecks hollering and cursing and spitting was fun too. aaron and i agreed it would be fun to work there (i said i would probably only last a day before the novelty wore off).

here's a shot of tom sweeping out the last of the crap...

here is aaron handing me the keys to the truck to pull it up a little. he was just as amazed at the place as i was. we were like kids in a candy store... i think he really dug that place...

we all guessed in the truck how much stuff we had. aaron said 3800 pounds. i said two tons (4000) tom guessed a ton and a half, and when we were weighed again on the way out we realized tom was closest. 3260 lbs. the whole thing only cost about $60 for the truck and $120 for the debris. not a bad day. we started work at noon and we had returned the truck and were sipping iced coffees at the gleaners by 3:30.

it was awesome....

now im finishing the demo work, and bagging it all up for one more trip. maybe this week, but maybe the week after that...

living room

some demo work has begun on the front living room. next week.. that plaster ceiling gets ripped out.... oh yes... i predict more exposed beams in the near future...

more demolition updates!!! - The KITCHEN

after chipping of over 156 square feet of wallpaper over plaster over brick i finally got to see some interesting things.. like one of the MANY (at least 7) layers of wallpaper. i actually like this wallpaper... a lot. it's very satisfying and much cheerier than the drab beige layers over it.. but sadly.. it's long gone...

my good friend Sterling helped me rip out the old plaster ceiling in order to clean up the wiring and have some nice exposed beams instead of a collapsing ceiling that probably had a half ton of plaster dangling from some very precariously placed "helper screws". this was someone's last ditch attempt to keep the ceiling from falling on them.. the better solution... was to just rip it out.
here's a shot of the plaster removed from the brick walls.. you can see the channel that was carved long ago to run copper knob and tube wiring up the wall and to the overhead kitchen light. (all gone now...) that's the original sink by the way, and after a good scrubbing and raising it four inches from where it is now, it will be pretty damn awesome... maybe you remember the pictures of the kitchen in the before post....
the photo below is looking into the kitchen from the dining room.. all of the plaster rubble and dust is now in about 20 contractor sized garbage bags awaiting a trip to the recycling center..

that is wednesday's job. more on that later..

oh, and that shop-vac... that's the best 50 bucks i've ever spent...

Demolition updates!!!

First, i have to apologize for not updating this site in a while. Ever since i bought the house, i've been soooo busy cleaning it out, and starting the demolition process that i havent had time to sit down and write about what has been going on. I also havent really had much of an internet connection, so uploading photos has been "out of the question"...

i started demolition of the horrible 1950's pink and black tile in the front entryway. as soon as there is money in the budget for replacing the tile it will be all new beautiful white subway tile in a brick laid pattern.

before:

After:

so far i have only taken one side of the tiled foyer down.. it took all day, and my hands were blistered from chipping tile and over and inch thick of concrete off of the masonry wall... i'm on to other projects right now, like ripping out the wiring and sweeping and bagging all of the crumbled plaster from the kitchen's recent demolition overhaul...

more crap about the house

i realized i never posted any pictures of the upstairs of the house... so i figured i should probably do that.. scroll down to [older posts] to see more of the house.

this is the upstairs hallway.. it will be a lot less cramped when that tub isn't leaning up against the bedroom door..

 one of the original doors... it's in pretty bad shape... so it will probably be replaced. it goes to the smaller bedroom (my future room)

this is my new bedroom... it needs some serious work....

yeah... that ceiling is a pretty scary sight. It's got to be ripped down and replaced, which is actually pretty good because it gives me access to the attic and the wiring. (always the optimist)

i warned you!!! its pretty bad. but hey... its a clean slate !! hahah.

anyway, here is a photo of the front bedroom. this will be kristen's room for year or so, and then ill probably move into it and use the smaller room for an office or a drafting area.

the floors are random width pine planks, but there's no telling what's under that plywood...

this is the back bedroom, its too small for habitation due to the fact that the bathroom was carved out of it, so in the future this is just going to become the whole bathroom with some wall closet space..

i think the previous tenant is a "disposaphobic" (that's the fear of throwing anything away)

here is the existing bath. mind you, i didnt pick that wall color!!!

the bathroom has no sink. it never had a sink. they brush their teeth in the kitchen. which is Totally unacceptable to me! Im not going down to the kitchen in the winter to brush my teeth!!

it will be a lot nicer to have a large spacious bathroom. something i dont recall ever having! 

well. hope you like them... that is if anyone ever reads this stuff.

dreaming...

of some tiny houses...

nice use of local materials:

the spite house:

Shanty cabin:

and my favorite:

God.. i want to move back to new england....