![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/upstairsBedroomhope.jpg\")
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\nYou would think they go together, old people and old houses, but we are finding that occasionally the two are in conflict.<\/p>\n
Handyman and I have started back on our eternal (it seems) endeavor to renovate this old farmhouse, but our efforts turned against us. We are the old people involved, you see. We have one last major project that must be done, an upstairs bedroom whose plaster ceiling had finally been falling in, whose deeply bowed flooring needed straightening, and whose walls were sandwiched between and thus on the agenda for removal. A major undertaking for anyone.<\/p>\n
This sort of work is now firmly in my husbands domain, while I took on the yard renovation that was past due. Little did we realize, after a rosy start full of vim and vigor, that we would outdo ourselves. Only not<\/i> in a positive way.<\/p>\n
We overworked, and our bodies rebelled. Water on the knee and a three week sciatica flare up for him, damaged knee and pulled calf muscles for me. Oh, we were a pair, I tell you!<\/p>\n
However, we had made some progress in the meantime and I have some pictures. I am hoping to entice Handyman away from Facebook to fill in the how-to details so far.<\/p>\n
And this is how we prod this old house blog awake…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Removed the ceiling plaster first You would think they go together, old people and old houses, but we are finding that occasionally the two are in conflict. Handyman and I have started back on our eternal (it seems) endeavor to renovate this old farmhouse, but our efforts turned against us. We are the old people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132,"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":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-6","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/upstairsBedroomhope.jpg?fit=453%2C604&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/getting-started\/","url_meta":{"origin":9,"position":0},"title":"Getting started","author":"Handyman","date":"December 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\u00a0 Since the room was basically unusable as an occupied space, it became very useful as a dumping ground.\u00a0 We called this room the \"junk room\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/4\/","url_meta":{"origin":9,"position":1},"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":9,"position":2},"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":9,"position":3},"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":113,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/winterizing-insulation\/","url_meta":{"origin":9,"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":121,"url":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/ode-to-an-old-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":9,"position":5},"title":"Ode to an Old House","author":"Ilona","date":"October 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Something about old houses calls to certain sorts of people. Is it the history, the sense of rescue from the brink of no return? or is it just more pragmatic motivations? For all of us: a poem, and a picture. Deserted THE old house leans upon a tree Like some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Madison Cawein"","block_context":{"text":"Madison Cawein","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/category\/madison-cawein\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/0253_1_md.jpg?fit=282%2C282&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}