1950-60's Suburban House Fixin'

[Hirsch]

Started rehabbing the kid playroom. It's a roughly 16x16 room on the same level as the garage that opens to the screened in back porch. 7 steps up and you're in the kitchen. When we bought the house the room had paneling that the previous owner had painted. The only thing I hate worse than paneling is painted paneling. At the time I didn't have the time to put up drywall, so me and friend smeared about 10 gallons of drywall mud on the walls, sanded it down and painted it. It looked as imperfect as the rest on the walls in the house. Until the temp changed and it cracked at every seam.

I started the destruction on Tuesday and got more than I bargained for. My house was built in 1959, during the time builders transitioned from lath and plaster to drywall. Between lath and plaster and drywall they used something called lath board. 2x4 sheets of plaster wrapped in paper. Primitive drywall. When I peeled off the paneling I discovered lath board behind it and no insulation on the outside walls. The wall between the garage and playroom was insulated, but the two outside walls weren't.

Got the insulation in and a few sheets of drywall up today. It already feels warmer in there. Hope to have it done by the middle of next week.

[J-Rod]

Sounds like fun...Good luck with the project!

[Hirsch]

All the drywall is up and the seams are taped off, getting ready to apply the first coat of 90 minute durabond.

[nordwulf]

My first house was built in the 50s. A great starter home in a nice little town in SE Michigan (Milford). It had some some character but was basically just a ranch with an added-on family room in the back. Other homes owned after that were built in the 90s or 00s and it is interesting to compare how they built homes these days and 50-60 years ago.

I wish I had more passion for home remodeling but in the end, I rather have a newer home. In that first home, we stripped many layers of paint from the kitchen cabinets and repainted everything. Paint stripper is not the nicest stuff to breath in all day.

[Hirsch]

Exterior wall, no insulation.

Wall between garage, insulated.

Everything cleaned out, new insulation in.

Going up!

[mySaab900]

Looking good! Do you have any pictures from before, when it has the hideous painted paneling?

[Shazam]

Nice work! What is jutting out of the wall with the window.

[Hirsch]

I forgot to take pictures of the paneling and it didn't look that bad. Had I used seam tape when I covered the paneling with drywall mud, it never would have cracked on the seams.

EDIT: Sean, in the first pictute you can see the paneling left on one wall.

I'm not not sure what you mean, Shazam. The black thing under the right side of the window is an old 220 outlet. Originally there was an air conditioner under that window. It was removed before I bought the house.

EDIT: Shazam, do you mean the boxy looking thing above the window? Thats a box hiding the duct work that goes to the bedrooms on the second floor.

[Shazam]

I was figuring air duct, but thought it weird they wouldn't run it in the ceiling. Beams go perpendicular to the duct?

[Aero]

That´s a good job!. I am used to brick walls around here, so quite a different way of doing things.