The Unplanned Demo Day | Homestead McCollow

Discovery

What I didn’t mention in last week’s post was the fact that before all this tiny closet plaster patching began, Pete had a hunch that the original, 158-year-old floor was still in the house – underneath the newer hardwood flooring that probably would’ve been installed back in the 90s.

He acted upon said hunch and ripped up a floor board in the closet. And, letting his curiosity get the best of him, took up another one of the boards, and then another, and another, and eventually had all the floor taken up in the closet:

“MORGAN!” I heard from upstairs.
“What’s going on?” I called as I ran up.

“Morgan, this is the original floor to the house! This floor is 158 years old!” It was so cool, and of course I pulled out my phone right away for photos. And as far as we can tell right now, the entire house still has the original hardwood flooring.

Original Hardwood Floor

I just had to call Pete in real time as I’m typing this out to ask him exactly how the next phase played out. He was quick to remind me that what I’m about to tell you next only happened because I “wouldn’t stop complaining about the upstairs bathroom situation.”
I’ve somehow blocked all this complaining from my memory. HA.
But I do remember we kept talking about how we’d like to re-do the bathroom and the bedroom next to it. Someday…

When “Someday” is Today

The plaster patching was complete, so Pete’s next situation was as follows: He was tired of all the apparent “complaining” I’d been doing, AND he was anxious to do some serious work. He figured the best thing to do next would be to put a hole in the wall because “once you have a hole in your wall, there’s no going back.” You’ve got to keep going and get the project done.

I heard another call for me from upstairs asking if I’d let him put a hole in a wall. And I said “heck yes!” I mean, how often do you get to put holes in the walls of your house?! I was excited!

A few seconds later, I heard him explaining what he was about to do while recording a video.

Then I heard it.

The hammer breaking in the wall. I rushed upstairs to check out the damage, and wouldn’t ya know it – through this new hole was a brick freaking wall!!

The bathroom is the 1st door on the right.

This was different than the summer kitchen brick wall though – this was drywall hung a few inches from the brick, not plaster scraped over the brick. Which means:
1. Pete didn’t have to use power tools to scrape away plaster off the brick. And
2. This was a remodel someone had done – probably at the same time they installed the new hardwood floors.

It’s not actually a Brick Wall

As Pete kept tearing away more and more of the drywall, we realized that the brick wall wasn’t actually a wall – it was a chimney. It was a chimney in the middle of our house that went from the first floor all the way up through the, second floor and attic, but stopped at the roof.

Okay wait – we had this huge chimney in the middle of our house and someone had the audacity to cover it up and tear it down above the roof?! Yep.

Pete went around to the other side of the wall and started tearing out more drywall. This side of the chimney did have plaster scraped onto and was covered in shiny silver wallpaper with white flower design.

I can’t begin to explain how annoyed I am that this is the only “before” photo I can find of the fireplace. This fireplace is on the first floor, and its the same chimney that we uncovered upstairs.
This photo is from when we were moving in and the items pictured are just a few of the things left behind by the sellers. *insert upside down smiley face emoji here*

Let the Demo Begin

Later, Pete’s long-time friend from high school stopped by and got roped into our demo day! We hadn’t planned on having a full on demo day then, but when you’ve got 3 people ready to explore the innards of a 158 year-old house, plus beer and power tools (we were safe, promise! ;)), our first real demo day was underway.

It was a mess, but it was so much fun. Plaster came down, walls were demo’d, our walk-in closet was demo’d.

Demo Day: Proof

That’s the chimney on the left, Pete on the right.

Walk-In Closet: BEFORE

The room we are demo-ing is on the other side of the far wall in this walk-in closet. I’m standing in the OTHER bedroom as I’m taking this photo. Hopefully this makes sense?)