It’s been a while since I’ve updated our progress on the John D. and Sallie Finch house that we are restoring in Zebulon. After moving in and tackling some new outdoor projects, like a new garage, replacement fencing and updating and upgrading our pool, we have turned our attention to the second floor projects in our 1911 house.
The last room in the house for restoration is a second bedroom upstairs. The plaster around the windows had failed several years ago, with chunks of plaster falling onto the floor and crumbling around the windows. Trails of white dust covered the floor and was easy to track throughout the house. About two years ago, we replaced that with drywall, and then left the project suspended, earmarking continued work for another day.
The room felt like a blast furnace in the summer, as there was no insulation in the walls, and heat poured out of an adjacent roughed-in bonus room, created by another owner 35 years ago. And the ceiling was missing plenty of boards as the electrician ran his wires through there for electrical service to the second floor eight years ago. In short, the room was a mess. We used this space for storage to park furniture, extra artwork and other items until we could build the garage and have adequate storage. So as the summer rolled around and the Triangle’s steamy heat returned for the year, we decided it was time to take on this project.
As the walls needed insulation and the plaster was failing, we took a hammer to two walls, demolition in full percussive force. Chunks of plaster fell onto tarps we had spread below the walls, and old blankets protected our restored floors. We gathered large crumbling chunks of this in heavy duty contractor bags.
After the plaster was gone, and bundled up, we each grabbed a hammer and my husband Scott and I methodically pried away the lathe underneath. Board by board, stick by stick it stubbornly held onto its furring strips, and eventually both walls were bare to the studs.
We chucked the lathe out the rear window, to be collected outside. I filled two car loads with the wooden lathe and disposed of it at the dump, wearing heavy leather gloves to protect my hands from the nails. I also transported two carloads of contractor bags filled with the plaster. All done, demolished, and cleaned up in a day.
The next day Scott returned with the ladder to button up the room with insulation. We purchased several rolls of R-19 fiberglass insulation and Scott installed these into the walls, roll by roll, section by section. When we were done, the room was already 3 degrees cooler.
We purchased an insulating blanket to cover the door to the adjoining “bonus room” in an attempt to prevent heat leakage. The bonus room is still full of additional trim that has been custom cut by a carpenter in Raleigh, and is used for overflow storage. At some point it will be turned into an office. For now, controlling the heat spillage is our concern and this insulating blanket should do the trick.
In our next project phase, we will re-build the bedroom by adding drywall. This is planned for mid-late summer and I’ll report back once that is completed.