Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Merciless Destruction of Mr. Wall

Step 1: Put on your merciless wall destroying face.
The Professor has odd ideas about "no mercy."

Step 2: Gather tools needed.
Step 3: Turn off the braker and remove the light switch that sticks out of the wall.



Step 4: The wall is too big to take down in one piece. What do we do?? Drill a line of holes across the middle of it, of course!


Step 5: Saw. Saw. Then saw some more.Step 6: Take a moment to ponder the makings of this wall...Step 6 Alternative: Or, if you're the Professor, you could always start hacking at the wall with the back of the hammer...Debris!Step 7: Pry away any loose boards that you can. Concentrate on the boards holding the wall in place - such as the baseboards and door frame.
Step 8: Casually lean against the wall and it will move!Er... Ok. There may have been a lot of kicking involved in the move...Those are actually my boot prints. I got the wall to move while the Professor was taking a water break.What's this? Half of the wall is now detached?AWESOME!I'm so happy! It's actually possible! We didn't drill holes in the wall for nothing! I don't have to live with drill holes!Yeah, plus, I'm a badass wall kicker.Or is that Russian dancer??Now... how to remove the top half of the wall?

Step 9: Go after the board holding top half of Mr. Wall in place. Use a hammer, pry bar, whatever it takes!Damn, the ceiling here is plaster... The pry bar easily damages it.Well... Maybe if I hook the pry bar onto the board and allow myself to dangle from it... Maybe my weight will be enough to pull it down...No, my weight wasn't enough, and, yes, I actually did try that. The Professor wasn't home for this part of the adventure. No one was there to keep the crazy woman in line. Fortunately, I'm still alive. My hand suffered a splinter and a shallow nail puncture... and I may have jumped from the ladder as it tried to collapse while I stood on it... But, overall, it went well...

Anywho.

Step 10: Push and pull on the wall until it comes loose from the wall. It took a while, but I finally managed to pull it down. Ok, I got it to come loose and then promptly dropped it as it was WAY too heavy.

Of course the ceiling is now a bit damaged, but I knew that would happen going in.The damage actually is pretty minimal. Plus, the plaster ceiling is about 2 inches above the drywall ceiling. I'm planning on putting up some support boards and a new square of drywall ceiling to ensure that the plaster is stabilized and the ceiling is even. TAH DAH! Much better. The room feels so much more open. And, yes, I will fix all of that...Here's the board where the wall was. Intact, but it missed a staining and varnishing at some point. I'll fix that too.It also lets more light into the upstairs landing!Mr. Wall, now in pieces, is hanging out on the front porch until trash day.And the Professor is REALLY happy because he now has his computer command center set up and can play shoot 'em up games.

5 comments:

  1. After seeing the fizzy hair picture I want to call you Mrs. Frizzle!! You'll be a rockin' teacher...even more so if you have a Magic School Bus.

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  2. Good job macho kids!
    I find that most home improvement = frizzy hair. :) You're not alone!

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Theresa, I already refer to myself as Ms. Frizzle in my head. All the time. A magic school bus would be cool though.
    Mrs. 5C, me too! Everything I do results in a super frizz halo, in all of its frizzy glory!

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