I'm gonna make a mess...

I was very tired of looking at this:
I've been away from my books for almost a year!! So: tearout. Boo. This is my least favorite part because you NEVER know what you're opening up... Already, I know that the walls are rocklathe and plaster, which means that you can't just throw on drywall patches, because everything needs to be shimmed. Fantastic. So I'll leave you with this:

Old hardware in a windex bath. Giggity.

12 hours later....

Trust me. I'm a professional... ;D

Now, my mud just needs to dry over night, and things should go fairly smoothly *knock knock*. The tearout went easily, but everything was together with these HUGE spikes, and I won't lie, it was a little challenging to take it apart, since I was trying to save the pieces to re-use. I found this in the ceiling:

I can't get a good picture, because of the reflection off the foil (foil backed insulation; I thought it was just in the exterior walls, but apparently it's between floors as well), but that is eelgrass, a type of seaweed that I've seen used as insulation in houses that were both older than this one, and located in fishing villages. I was a little surprised to see it here.

I found a robin's egg today too. I almost stepped on it, and I picked it up before I realized what it was. The inside appears to be completely liquid though, and there's a crack in a shell.

The windex appears to be working on the old hardware, but I'm not sure what's up with the change in colour:


And now, I am le tired. Bed. More mud in the morning.