Getting down with Mr.Smashy!

While Pete was outside demolishing the shed I decided to get busy with tearing apart the inside of the house. I grabbed Mr.Smashy, my trusty rusty crowbar, and headed into the living room areas. Plan of attack- get paneling off the walls. Our living room(s) are separated by a partial wall and large opening.

Trim was the first thing I pulled off in the room. Most of it was in the extremely cheap variety, as in plastic and some sort of odd wood Styrofoam hybrid, so no love was lost as I yanked away. Some of the window trim was installed on top of the paneling, which meant in order to get the paneling off I had to pry away. Thankfully finish nails were the only things used to hold anything down and they make for easy removal.

Next came time to work on the paneling themselves. In theory they should be extremely easy to remove, couple nails pop out and you just have to wrestle the unruly sheet down. Theories are for the birds folks. Most of the room had two layers of paneling- Dark Wood and Light Wood! Which is automatically double the work. There was heating duct work , DIY walls and double layers of paneling blocking my every move. Adding to the complication was the fact they used paneling nails, which have lovely rings that make the nail extremely hard to get out.

Taking down the paneling included not only pulling but kicking, jumping and cursing until a I managed to get a piece down. Every time I would get in a rhythm with taking down the panels I would run across a new challenge... or new disappointment. Like when I took down the chimney paneling (flowers!) and saw nothing but plaster and wallpaper behind it. Sigh, I was so hoping for an amazing fireplace with bricks and maybe an inlaid tile pattern. I'm in for a lot of careful chipping if I want to see those bricks!

The front wall was by far the most surprising in that we discovered a hidden doorway behind the paneling! It must have led in from the original foyer. We had no idea that there was anything behind that paneling besides plaster. An window frame was also uncovered , but we knew that was there, since you can see if from the other side of the wall.

Quick notes about this photo-

#1 is pointing out out the BLUE wood paneling that the hallway had.

#2 Shows where our original wood trim used to be! The moulding that was taken off so the paneling could lay flat. The same trim that was pulled off, cut up and used to hang the drop ceiling.

The view from our newly discovered door looking into the room at the end of the work day.
and a tiny blurry Nala puppy looking over my hard work.

Mr.Smashy and I would have high fived at this point. But he doesn't have hands, so I went outside and chilled in the shade with some water instead. The other side of the living room can wait a bit!