Elena's new bedroom

July 22, 2019 When we bought the house in 2003-4, I don't remember exactly when. I know it was November, I think, but back when we bought it we had a new heating system put in. Our heating duct guy gave us a price to run a few new ducts into the back bedroom and the forward bedroom. He tore a hole into the kitchen's south wall behind where the refrigerator was to go when we were done with the kitchen renovation and connected up the vent to the back bedroom. All the walls in the kitchen were coming down so I
only minded a little bit that he tore a hole in this wall. When he went to connect the front bedroom I couldn't let him tear into the dining room walls and connect the heating system because of a small vent a previous owner had installed. It had something to do with preserving history and the uniqueness of this house, plus we'd just put up new sheetrock, I think. I know I took down the original walls and added outlets. We completely redid the Kitchen from its 1930's or so styling, Those were thing that needed to be done to make the house livable. That vent wouldn't change any ones life, I thought. I guess life changing is a little strong. Because of a lack of insulation and only the one heating/air conditioning vent that poration of the house has always been cold. I remember one time Amanda was sleeping in the back bedroom and complained she froze one night. I went in and locked all the windows in the room and that bought the temperature of the room up into the almost comfortable

area. What all this preamble has been about is Elena wants to move into that room. Teri has agreed that Elena and I can take down the walls and ceiling, insulate and put up new walls. Elena's job is destruction and nagging. She is taking down the plaster and lathe. She'll then bag it and put it out for trash. My job is to help a little with destruction. I'm to guide and to put up insulation and finally the wall board. Elena's last job is to nag me to make sure I finish the job.
       The pictures on the left are from the first day or two of Elena taking down the plaster. Throughout the day I'd come in and immediately smell the familiar dust of falling plaster walls. Then the rhythmic pounding with small rainfalls of plaster in between. The plaster on those wall is not in bad shape and if there had been a way to insulate the walls without the foam injection method that might be hazardous to your health and Teri being sensitive to a lot of airborne things the walls come down. After the plaster, then the lathe. They are done separately so the lathe doesn't put holes in the bags and the garbageman won't take them. This is a project that will take a while. So far Elena has done all the work. There will come a time when I will become more involved, but right now it is all her and I think she really is enjoying herself.
         July 30, 2019
         Elena has worked really hard on her room. She has torn all the walls down and only the lathe and the ceiling remain. Yesterday she tore down the chimney that ran up the east wall  of the room. It would have been a beautiful accent to leave in place, but it took up a large part of what will be the closet.
       Back again to when we first bought the house. We were redoing the kitchen. The Chimney runs from just to the left of the basement door up behind where we put the spice cabinet and into Elena's room she is working on now. Back when we redid the kitchen I wanted to take it down. It was not being used and I could never see it ever being used. The builder said it would be very expensive to take down. So we built the spice cabinet in front of it. A few years later a storm knocked down the chimney to just above the roof line. We got some insurance money and took the chimney down and had a shy light put in. It brightened a very dark area of the attic.
       A few years ago I started hacking at the bottom of the chimney hoping to bring it down enough to install a  laundry chute. I got nowhere.
        Elena started taking down the chimney over the weekend. I did some Sunday night and she brought down the final six feet of it piling it nicely in one of the corners of the room. She said I could have the fun of bring it down stairs. I want to use the chimney to add to the stones patio out the back door. I want the bricks to be under all the plants I have near the house to keep the grass down.
















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