Tiny Crooked House: Journey of Discovery

"To destroy is always the first step in any creation." E. E. Cummings

We were still in the planning phase but no matter what we knew everything in the house had to go. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that we wouldn't find a stitch of insulation in the walls. I already knew from my tour in the crawl space that the wiring need to all be redone. And I was mentally preparing myself for what other surprises we would find along the way. It was only a tiny house so the demolition shouldn't take long.....right?
A hundred year old home with wall covered in wallpaper on drywall. It really shouldn't be a big deal to rip all of this out. A couple, maybe a few weekends and we should be ready to start the rebuilding process.
I was guessing that given the age there was probably just plaster and lathe behind that drywall so I did what every red blooded man would do, I tried to put my fist through the wall. Now I am not seen by those around me as a small man, but my first punch didn't even make a dent in the wall. In fact it hurt a little! But I was a man! I wasn't going to let any thing plaster wall hinder my testosterone fueled display!
Suffice it to say the wall didn't budge the tiniest bit and the air around me may have turned blue for a brief period.

My framer's hammer at least made a dent in the wall. Being a blacksmith I did not have a paucity of hammers so I pulled out a big boy....which only made a little larger dent in the wall. By now most of you are thinking "you are hitting over a stud you silly ass, just try a different spot." That occurred to me as well, but still no joy. It was time for the big hammer!! It made a hole.
My walls were not plaster and lathe. They were two layers of some kind of drywall or gyproc covered by 5 layers of wallpaper (at least). Underneath those layers of drywall was plaster, and under that was solid 1X6 shiplap. That explained why my hand hurt so much.


Layer upon layer upon layer of wallpaper

What I expected should have been a few weekends of demolition turned into week after week after week. The drywall was nailed on ever six inches. Nothing came of in big pieces. The shiplap was nailed on with 3 inch nails. I don't know if you ever tried to pull nails out of wood that had been drying around that nail for a very long time, but let me tell you it was work!!! I tried desperately to preserve that wood but eventually just resorted to running the sawsall down between the studs and pulling out 18 inch long pieces of shiplap.

Along the way we made many interesting discoveries, including the fact that our home was once 4 separate cabins all place together. This is apparently not uncommon in our area where coal miners would haul shacks into town and place them together to make a larger house. The walls between rooms were almost 9 inches thick because the exterior walls of the cabins were just placed against each other so if you can picture this the walls were 2 layers of drywall - 1 inch shiplap - 2X4 - 1 inch shiplap - some kind of asphalt siding - another layer of asphalt siding - 1 inch shiplap - 2X4 - 1 inch shiplap - 2 layers of drywall!!!


Anyone wanna shag? There were two layers of vinyl flooring under this and yes, we found original hardwood under sit all.

I am pretty sure I had hair before this.

That drywall came off in 4 to six in chucks through the entire house.

We have skeletons in our walls

The Toronto Star Weekly, Saturday, November 5th, 1932. Another little treasure within our walls.

This knife was found in the walls. We would love to know more about it if anyone can tell us. I would also love to have some suggestions on cleaning it up without damaging it.