{"id":5,"date":"2013-12-19T19:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/?p=5"},"modified":"2015-03-14T13:01:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T13:01:43","slug":"getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting started"},"content":{"rendered":"

First order of business in beginning this project is to:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Get room cleared out of all the stuff that had accumulated in it over the years.  Since the room was basically unusable as an occupied space, it became very useful as a dumping ground.  We called this room the “junk room” and it has fulfilled this use and now is finally being made livable after all these years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next<\/b>: <\/span><\/p>\n

Prepare for demolition work.  We decided to leave the floor in place until last.  This way, as we removed the old plaster and lath from the ceiling and walls the debris would collect on the floor for removal to the trash bin.  Also, the old floor served as a floor to work off of and it also didn’t matter that it got damaged by falling plaster and lath.  <\/span><\/p>\n

 Before we started knocking down the old plaster, we first rolled up the old insulation in the attic above the ceiling.   <\/span><\/p>\n

Let the demolition begin:<\/b><\/p>\n

Demolition is usually easy.  You do need to take some safety precautions (goggles, dust masks, etc).  The basic tools needed are a wrecking bar, vise grips, and a hammer.  In order to minimize the amount of dust getting into the rest of the house, we closed the door and opened the 2 windows.  In one window we put a window fan (set on “high”) exhausting the dust to the outside.  The other window served as the intake to create cross ventilation. This greatly minimizes the amount of dust settling\/floating in the house. Once these preliminaries were done, we began tearing down the old ceiling.  Once you have smashed a hole in the plaster you can begin using the wrecking\/pry bar to begin  pulling down the old plaster and lath.  The vise grips are used to remove any remaining lath nails from the joists.  Once the old ceiling is totally removed it is time to begin cleanup.  I purchased an inexpensive 33 gallon trash can and a box of 50 heavy duty contractor trash bags.  We would scoop up about 50 lbs worth of debris in the bag, then haul it out to the trash bin.  The reason for about 50 lbs was only because that weight was manageable and still avoid causing the bag to break. This was mainly for the old plaster which adds up to a lot of weight.  With the old lath, we threw it out the window to be used as kindling for our wood stove during the winter.<\/p>\n

I have posted some pictures (in a previous post) of the exposed ceiling and the old oak joists .  What you see here is the unfinished attic.  The BX armored cable you see was for the old ceiling light fixture.  This was the only wiring for the room.  There were no receptacles in any of the upstairs rooms when we moved here, only single ceiling light fixtures with a wall switch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First order of business in beginning this project is to: Get room cleared out of all the stuff that had accumulated in it over the years.  Since the room was basically unusable as an occupied space, it became very useful as a dumping ground.  We called this room the “junk room” and it has fulfilled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/4\/","url_meta":{"origin":5,"position":0},"title":"Rebuilding A Bedroom: The Walls","author":"Handyman","date":"December 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"And now for the walls: Now that the old ceiling has been totally removed and the old oak joists exposed, it was time to remove the old plaster & lath walls.\u00a0 In 2 previous rooms I had done, I left all 4 plastered walls intact and faced them with 1\/4\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remodeling"","block_context":{"text":"remodeling","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/category\/remodeling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/reason-for-bowed-ceiling\/","url_meta":{"origin":5,"position":1},"title":"Reason for bowed ceiling","author":"Handyman","date":"December 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a couple reasons for the bowed ceiling.\u00a0 As I previously mentioned, both the floor and the ceiling sagged like a saucer.\u00a0 The sag was about 4\" in the center of the room.Sag reason #1.\u00a0 The old 2x8\" oak joists (roughly 16\" on center) spanned almost 16'.\u00a0 This is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/2013-12-15_16-00-53_425.jpg?fit=577%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/2013-12-15_16-00-53_425.jpg?fit=577%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/2013-12-15_16-00-53_425.jpg?fit=577%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/leveling-floors-ceilings-in-120-year-old-farm-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":5,"position":2},"title":"Leveling floors & ceilings in 120 year old farm house.","author":"Ilona","date":"December 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"First...A little history. Back in 1985 my wife and I and our 5 children (at the time) purchased an old farm house out in the country that was built in stages beginning in 1894.\u00a0 We had lived in the city and felt it would be a good idea to move\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Handyman"","block_context":{"text":"Handyman","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/category\/handyman\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/joists2.jpg?fit=577%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/joists2.jpg?fit=577%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/joists2.jpg?fit=577%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/flooring\/","url_meta":{"origin":5,"position":3},"title":"Flooring","author":"Ilona","date":"October 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We've had experiences with different kinds of flooring over the years. And a few oddball flooring situations. Like the bowing of the upper bedroom floor. I found out that the inventive Amish farmer had installed a water resevoir up there after bringing the toilet facilities indoors. Trouble was, it leaked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cork flooring"","block_context":{"text":"cork flooring","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/category\/cork-flooring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":113,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/winterizing-insulation\/","url_meta":{"origin":5,"position":4},"title":"Winterizing -Insulation","author":"Ilona","date":"November 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I visited the Victorian Farmhouse and read this post on winterizing. Those were the days. Described are various methods we also used in this house in the early days- straw bales around the foundations, plastic wrapped windows, etc. No-likey any of those useful, but awkward ways to keep warm. Old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "insulating"","block_context":{"text":"insulating","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/category\/insulating\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/old-people-and-old-houses\/","url_meta":{"origin":5,"position":5},"title":"Old People And Old Houses","author":"Ilona","date":"November 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Removed the ceiling plaster firstYou would think they go together, old people and old houses, but we are finding that occasionally the two are in conflict.\u00a0Handyman and I have started back on our eternal (it seems) endeavor to renovate this old farmhouse, but our efforts turned against us. We are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2013"","block_context":{"text":"2013","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/category\/2013\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/upstairsBedroomhope.jpg?fit=453%2C604&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}