X-Ray Vision
It’s been quite a few months since Joey and I have taken on a nitty gritty home improvement project, meaning a project where we completely destroy a room and then put it back together. Well, it’s time to start gearing up for one of those interesting adventures because the kitchen remodel is lurking in our very near future. Sigh. Gulp. Vomit.
We recently spent the day analyzing the kitchen trying to figure out the new floor plan (I’ll get into all of this later). While we stared at one of the crusty, deteriorating walls, we started wondering what was behind it and if we could rip it open. That’s when we remembered one of the perks of remodeling a room that’s eventually going to be completely destroyed:
Our walls are in such bad shape that Joey tore through it in about 5 seconds with the end of a broom. And just like that, we had our answer. There’s a chimney behind that wall and therefore, that wall will be staying with us forever. I know, I know…if we really wanted to move the wall, we could move the chimney or work around it, yada, yada, yada, but we’re hoping to keep this remodel as affordable and easy as possible. So the wall is staying.
As Joey began his damage and the plaster crumbled away from the lath, we found a familiar sight we recognized from our previous work with walls in our house – hair. Lots and lots of hair.
It’s kinda gross and cool at the same time. We’ve been told it’s horse hair and that’s way less creepy than just about any other hair it could be, so I think the cool far outweighs the gross. Back in the day, 1913 to be exact (that’s the year our house was built), horse hair added strength to the plaster goop skilled crafstmen smeared onto the lath. And now we’re going to undo all that work in just a few hours. But we’ll use hammers and crowbars instead of broom handles. It’s just our personal preference.
What’s the chimney for?
Ooooo the kitchen…horse hair….good luck:-)
Thanks, Susie!
Hi Karen Anne! The chimney serves as a vent for our boiler. I wish it was connected to a real fireplace, but no such luck.