Sunday, August 2, 2009

Powder Room Up-Date

Hello Everyone!

As promised here is a quick up-date on the powder room.

Don't you just love mounds of plaster?
















At least I was able to keep the dust down somewhat.









It surprised me that there was so little plaster, but then again I have yet to do the ceiling.





Here are the 'bones' of the wall. They'll come down hopefully Monday.















More of the 'bones'.

















Here is where the vent was located.

SWMBO isn't too happy that I've posted this picture. As you can see there is mold on the ceiling. She is afraid someone with the health department, or such, will see this and condemn our house!!!

PALEASE!!!!!

I have a feeling the mold is there because the duct work under the floor that feeds this vent is in a high moisture area. Also, there was no lining in the wall for the vent. The duct work stopped at the hole in the floor and just feed into the empty space between the studs and walls. So, all the moisture, plus heat, and you have this crawling across the ceiling.

It's a wonder this house hasn't killed us yet.

Okay, remember the mystery I mentioned in the last post? Well, here it is.

This is the wall behind the toilet. Well, the wall was installed sometime in the 50s or 60s - I think. This plaster was different than the plaster in the rest of the house - it didn't have any horse hair in it. This plaster had tiny pieces of mica instead. Also, there was an eggshell thin layer of skim coat on top of this. When it fell to the ground it sounded like the tiniest, finest, china breaking and falling. It reminded me of ice.

The mystery? Why would you have a room/pathway that led from the foyer to the kitchen? All the trim work and doors are original so we know they are contemporary to when the house was built. So, this kind of throws out the pantry possibility.

The only time I have ran across a passageway like this is when they connect rooms, such as bed rooms, or kitchens to dinning rooms or widow's walks. I have never seen one that connected a foyer to another room. Perhaps it was just one HUGE closet.

Oh, you want to hear something creepy?!?!

Perhaps I was just too tired, or my pumpkin senses were getting to me, or I've just seen one too many spooky movie, but while removing the plaster from this wall I could have sworn I saw a pair of pale white eyes staring at me from inside the other wall!! It was just a fleeting thing, out the corner of my eye, but it made me turn and look.

Just wait till I tell people this one! Of course I will do it through the door while they are using the facilities.

This is an interesting shot.

Come on, admit it, don't YOU want a toilet and lavatory in your breakfast nook?

I'm not sure if we can legally let anyone have the toilet for use, but we do plan to donate the lavatory to someone who needs it.

For those of you interested, here is a better view of the wallpaper.

It was made out of canvas and is the first of it's kind we've found in the house. So far all the other wallpaper has been made of paper. Also, this wasn't original, it was on top of another layer that was made of paper. The pattern of the first layer was so faint I couldn't get a picture of it - sorry.

Just thought I'd throw this shot in for the fun of it.

It's the hot & cold line to the lavatory. I cut off the pipes and caped the lines for later use.

Do you see all those electrical lines? Nothing says fun like working around electrical lines with water! BTW - the one on the left I had to use a sawzall on. It was real fun when the trapped water gushed over it!!

I have not done the same to the line running to the toilet yet. That water line is even harder to get to and I want to make sure my life insurance is paid up first!!

Oh yeah, one more thing. See the larger pipe between the water lines? That is the waste pipe for the lavatory. What's so cool about that the pipe has 'Belle Plaine Lmb. Co. Belle Plaine KS.' printed on it. You can just barely see 'Belle Pl' on it if you blow it up.

Well, enough for now.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry

1 comment:

Sandy said...

I think I would have fainted if I had seen electrical lines right next to water lines.