Renovating a 70 years Old House

My brother and sister-in-law recently bought a 70 years old house which is cute and charming but requires a lot of work.  From what we can tell, the original was a small farm house with a parlor, dining, half bath and a kitchen on the first floor and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.  Later on a new great room with a fire place and a bedroom was added off the kitchen and the front door was changed off the great room.  The old stair case to upstairs from the old parlor was closed off, and they added a new stair case to the upstairs off the new great room.   The house foundation is a cinder block basement.  A cute front porch with white railing and rood adds to the charm of the house. 

Sometime later a family room was added to the back of the house that sits on a concrete slab and has a fireplace.

My brother and sister-in-law would like to rebuild the kitchen, put all new carpeting and build a new deck outside.

We (my husband and I) volunteered to help with tearing down the old kitchen to the studs, including the ceiling.  Needles to say it has been an adventure.  Unforturnately, I forgot to take a before picture of the kitchen, so you have to use your imagination and place a mix of pine and oak cabinets in an L shape against the long wall.

We spent the first day removing the old cabinet and sink.  The next day we started with tearing down the walls.  There was a brick veneer on the back splash and part of one house that came down first.  Under the brick veneer and the cabinets we discovered very old pressed board nailed to the studs with thousands of nails, seriously.

On one wall we discoverd four layers, two layers of dry wall, pressed board and exterior wall shingles.

No place like inside a wall to store extra construction materials!

Tearing down the ceiling was even more fun.  The first layer was dry wall which came down very easy. 

I said easy not neatly! 

Then we discovered more press board again attached with thousands of nails as well as old installation and mice droppings (I know gross).

We used a very high tech state of the art tool to remove all the materials from the ceiling.

A garden hoe!!

Never forget your safety gear.