An Invitation
NOTE: We have rescheduled the fun for March 28!
Yes, we're going to be taking the dining room and hall ceilings down, and remove the last of the fake wood paneling. In three weeks, no less. We're way behind on the work on the front room, but this just must be done. So we're buying a load of hard hats, ordering up a dumpster, and inviting everybody we know to help do the work.
The deal is that the previous owners put dropped ceilings in the dining room and hallway. We know there is water damage in the dining room (there was a large leak there), and we know there is none in the hallway (because we looked). Removing a drywall ceiling is more work than you usually expect it to be, although these ones look like they were put up with nails rather than screws.
We're going to have three crews: rippers, who will remove the material from the ceilings/walls; shovelers, who will shovel it all off into the dumpster; and aides, who will administer water/bandaids/etc., and take photos as the others work. If we get enough people and work goes quickly, we will also tear off as much old wallpaper as possible, so I can repair the plaster underneath and get the hall/dining room into usable shape faster. And we're going to need to do cleanup in addition to the demolition, because we need to live in this house. In other words, there's lots to be done that isn't necessarily as strenuous as this job often can be.
We're looking to have a crew of at least five on hand at all times of day, though more would definitely be welcome and make the work go faster. Everybody working gets a hard hat, dust mask, work gloves, and eye protection. The hard hats will be our own souvenir Casa Decrepit collectors item hard hats, yours to keep and treasure for years to come. We probably have plenty of hammers and pry bars to see us through, but we're going to need to borrow some shovels and wallpaper scrapers, not to mention ladders (we have 12' tall ceilings) so any tools you can bring be will be appreciated.
Meals are provided, beginning with breakfast and through to dinner, with snacks and lots of fluids. Alcohol will be administered as needed, but most generally after the work is done, because as funny as it is to tell the story about how Friend X fell off a ladder while drunk and broke his wrist, it is much better to not have the story to tell.
If you're game, drop us an e-mail and we will send you directions/contact info and order a hat for you. We sent round this invitation to friends before opening it up here, so if you already told us you would be here, no need to reply again; we have you on the list.
Technorati Tags: construction, demolition, dumpster, fake wood paneling, plaster, renovations
posted by ayse on 03/02/09