In looking back at the progress of our remodeling projects, I have to mention the most amazingly stupid thing I've ever seen.
As we've lived in and made changes to our house over these ten years, I've been amazed at some of the crazy things we've found. Our front bathroom was wired into the rest of the house via a lamp cord electrical taped into the main line. I still don't know how the house didn't burn down from that. There's the vinyl siding that was nailed over all the attic ventilation. But this one... this one leaves me speechless.
As part of our "little" remodeling project we're doing, we're pulling out the old paneling and hanging drywall. There used to be a hearth and woodstove in the living room. The stove left a long time ago, but the hearth remained until this summer. This is an in-progress shot of the demolition:
Yup, the rock had been added in after the house was built, and they just mortared it to the existing paneling. (Don't you love that wall color? The living room was like a dungeon before I painted over it.) Oh, I should add that they also mortared the rock onto the window casing and stool. Morons.
The floor of the hearth was laid over a layer of concrete blocks. When pulling these up, we found about a thousand ancient cigarette butts stuck inside the blocks. The smell was indescribable... I HATE the odor of fresh tobacco. Don't get me started on 25-year old butts. Jax and I both vomited off the porch at this point.
Here is the clincher. That outlet you see was LIVE. Yes, someone thought it was a good idea to stuff wet mortar into a live outlet. I lack words to describe this to its uttermost.
I also wanted to show the original carpet in this room. Yes, the concrete blocks were just set onto the carpet before installing the hearth, thereby making it impossible to neatly install new carpet AND preserving this bit of design history for the next couple generations. Burnt-orange shag carpet - oh, yes.
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wakeful dreamer