Demo Day: Opening Up the Office Walls

On Sunday, Liz and I returned to the house on our own and put in a few hours of work. She continued working on the dining room, and I turned my attention to the walls between the office and our guest bedroom.

Plaster all gone.

The office side laths, removed.

During a short break, Liz came up to try her hand at a bit of the demo. Note that she’s using her bandana as a face mask, due to all the dust that got kicked up earlier.

And all laths removed! I didn’t quite get to the small closet in the corner, so I guess that’ll be for next time.

A small pile of wood (nails and all). Bob confirmed that I was crazy to pound down all the nails from the boards, so ignoring that step in the process made things go much faster.

I’m wasting a lot of heavy duty trash bags, but until we officially haul these guys outside… this is the best way I know of to keep the (plaster) mess contained.

A look from the office to the guest room, to the master bedroom. The goal is to straighten out the office wall, and push it towards the guest room by about a foot or two, opening up the office even more.

Amazingly, I got all of this done in a few hours. With each demo session I’ve done, I’ve gotten more confident and have begun to work much faster. I’m no longer being timid with the plaster (though I slow down a bit, as I try to pull some of it directly into the trash can). And I spend a bit of time cleaning up the plaster, before moving on…

But beyond that, I’m moving pretty quickly! Now that I’m no longer concerns with the nails in the lathe, and also having switched from a hammer to a crowbar… I’m removing things with abandon. At a few points, I was just able to rip the lathe clean off with my bare hands.

It’s grunt work that any knucklehead can do. But I’m finding demo work immensely rewarding, given the near instantaneous results you see.

Strange that I feel most like a homeowner when I’m actively destroying parts of the home that I purchased.

Related:
Solo Demo Run
Demo Work, Continued