day two… what have I gotten myself into?

First surprise- the tiles didn’t pop neatly off the walls like I had hoped. Will have to remove the walls down to the studs and eventually hang new drywall. I wonder from the number of nails I’m finding as I remove the walls if the country didn’t experience a nail shortage in the early 80s when the plaster and lathe was removed from this portion of the house.

I’m planning on only removing the lowest 5 feet of wall, but can already see that I may have to change that approach and remove the lowest 8 feet to get a clean break between existing panels of drywall. Besides, I’m not sure how good I’m going to be at masking and plastering the gaps, so I may want any unseemly seams 8 feet high instead of near eye level.

I have turned off the water and located the circuit breaker to shut off power in the project room. Got the sink unhooked and the toilet removed completely. Can already tell that unhooking the claw foot bathtub is going to be a cast iron bastard. Another issue that I hadn’t thought about was the existing baseboard heat. The unit appears to have both dry wall and tile behind it, and I don’t see any obvious way to disassemble it. Maybe it will make more sense once I get the tub moved out of the way. Quite possibly it will make less.

I have removed all artwork from the project area with exception of a ceramic skeleton man who expressed an interest in being allowed to hang around as long as possible as the tunes are rather delightful. You may wonder what I consider a good choice of music to demolish walls to. I highly recommend the Cars.

Seriously! I recently reacquainted myself with their first album “The Cars” during a road trip to Arizona. I had forgotten just how good that record is from Good Times Roll right though to All Mixed Up- each song amazingly better than the one before. I dare you to listen to Moving in Stereo without thinking about the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. So after letting that run through several times, I switched over to another classic- “Candy-O.” Wow! I can’t even pick a favorite…. Let’s Go, It’s All I Can Do, Double Life, Candy-O, Lust for Kicks, Dangerous Type. They all rock! Even the Cars 1981 offering, “Shake it Up,” belongs in any jukebox or home cd collection.

I need a friggin’ pipe wrench and a larger trash container, and the State Fair has opened which means the ponies are running. (Note: I will bet on any horse named “Corn Dog.”)