After much effort to save the authentic plaster walls in our kitchen, the decision was finally made to tear out everything, down to the studs, and rebuild.  I had fought this idea for some time, but even I had to admit that it was what we needed to do.

Silly me!  I thought that tearing down plaster was a relatively quick job that you could do in a few hours from start to finish.  I know, I know.  You’re laughing now if you’ve ever torn out plaster!  Michael and my sister and I all started in and spent several hours working hard.  By the time our shift ended, we were about one-third of the way done and simply covered in plaster and crud.  And by that time, I had a very real idea of the time it would take for us to finish our project.

On our next shift, I took possession of the ceiling plaster removal project.  I had an idea that would make it efficient, and I wanted to try it.  Well, my idea was a good one, but with every chunk of plaster and lathe, a ton of dust and black soot came down with it.  By the time I had to stop to take care of the baby, I was a different color.  Michael took my photo just for the record books.

I was wearing a white shirt at the beginning of the day, but it wasn’t white by the end of the day.  Thing is, at the end of this day, the job still wasn’t done!!!  But we took a break from it and decided to resume the next day.

One more day of work got us to the end of the plaster-removal project.  I would be interested to know how many pounds of plaster and lathe and blown-in insulation we hauled out.  The pile on the curb was huge.

Now my kitchen resembles a log cabin, with beautiful dark wood all around, complete with cob webs in the rafters.  Every now and then when someone walks overhead, we get lightly sprinkled with a little more crud, just to remind us that we aren’t done yet with our construction.  I’ll be sure to get a photo soon to share with you.

Love,

Christie