Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Triumph over the tile!

Breaking up the edge tiles was the trick to getting the tile off the wall. As soon as I started breaking them up with the claw end of the hammer, the wall didn't look so challenging anymore. It was drywall on top of drywall. As you can see in the pictures, it looks like there was some form of tile on the original wall under the top layer of drywall. I also found some very interesting wallpaper leftovers. The navy blue curls are fuzzy and feel like velvet. I can't believe someone in the 60s choose that awful wallpaper to the walls. I wish I could have seen the previous tile. I wonder what color they were. My guess is teal. Anyway, it's a good thing I'm taking down the drywall. The original wall looks moldy where the old tiles used to be. I'm really hoping it's just discolored glue.



Tuesday, November 17, 2009

I refuse to let the bathroom win

Saturday
I got up early on Saturday to get a head start on cleaning or demo, which ever I decided to do first. I decided to go to Lowes and Target instead. I had a few items to still pick up at Lowes and when I couldn’t find everything I needed I headed to Target. I couldn’t find a small roll of duct tape to save my life at Lowes. All they had was huge $8 rolls. I knew I would only need a small amount so I saved that for Target. I was also surprised to find a very small selection of extremely expensive reciprocating saws at Lowes. I know Target has power tools, so I have 2 more things on my Target it list.


I knew the linen cabinet in the bathroom was going to be tricky to get out, but I didn’t expect what I found. I believe the cabinet was glued on the wall. There are no nails or screws or anything I could see attaching it to the walls. So I decided to try the take a hammer to it with all my strength trick. That didn’t work at all. My hammer bounced back and vibrated the wall. With no luck there, I got out the reciprocating saw and started sawing the sucker off the wall. Since I’ve never used that type of saw before, I tested out how powerful the saw was by cutting off the middle support on the bottom section of the front. It sawed through it like butter. I then cut off the heat vent that comes up through the bottom of the cabinet. Since that created a ton of sawdust, I decided to get the vacuum out and clean up. I got bored with the saw and thought it was time to see how easy it would be to get 50 year old drywall off the wall. It was pretty easy with the claw part of the hammer. I worked on the section next to the cabinet above the tile. I was dying to find out why the tile wouldn’t come off the wall. As I got closer to the tile I noticed a piece of wood that was at the top ledge of the tile. I was hoping it was just the size of the stud. I stuck my hand down the gap to see how long it was. That board is at least as deep as my hand. I know my hand is pretty small, but come on. I think that is a little over kill. It’s not like they put granite on the wall and needed the support.

Before I did anything to it
Hole I put in the wall
Board that is at the top edge of the wall tile
Sunday
No demo or cleaning got done at all. I had Church from 10:00 – 1:00, then went to lunch with some church members, and after that went to test one of the streams my Church’s team are responsible for. I only had about 2.5 hours at home after that until I needed to be back at Church for the Church Council meeting at 7pm. Then I needed to go to the grocery store. I only had time to wash a load a laundry. I lost that day.

Monday
After work I decided to do some much needed cleaning/rearranging/sorting of the office and 3rd bedroom. I made some good progress and even found some stuff I had lost. I finally washed and put up the Christmas dishes I bought last Christmas. Found my extra pillows and a few little kid books for Morgan to look at while they’re here. It took a lot longer than I thought and didn’t finish before it was time for bed. Both closets were a little disorganized and I had to straighten them out before I could add more to the piles.

Tonight
After work tonight I am headed over to the NASA fitness center to get a membership and maybe walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes or so. After my chat with Chad last night, I need to then go get a few more things from Lowes and then continue with the demo. I hope to unlock more of the mystery of the over-the-top, crazy tile support system on the wall.