Tearing Down Drywall and Removing Insulation Alone in Fixer Upper

My husband worked on tearing down drywall and removing insulation alone in our tiny fixer upper. It was another milestone in this renovation journey! I can’t believe he did this all by himself with no experience. Just knocking down walls and doing the best he could.

We have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time, but we still had a long way to go! And actually, we still to this day, have a long way to go! Stay tuned as this journey continues.

Ephesians 2:22

In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit

All the floors (at least temporary plywood ones) are finally finished! Or, so we originally thought. There is more to this journey so stick with me here. When the plywood went down – meaning over the foundation, that was an indicator the work underneath should have been completed.

We just went with that notion as we didn’t know much about foundation repairs and it was time to keep moving along with our renovations, or what really felt like a complete rebuild of this tiny historic fixer upper! We run into a few snags with our foundation later, which I will cover in another blog. I guess it’s true when they say, you are never truly done fixing up your house!

TEARING DOWN DRYWALL AND REMOVING INSULATION

Since we’ve got all the floors on now, at least the temporary plywood ones, it was time to start tackling the walls. As Nate scopes out the house to come up with his game plan, he makes a comment about how we’ve got to see the potential with the renovations to come despite the current condition the house is in!

Ahh, and the lighting is just beautiful in the house as we are south facing. Just another glimpse of hope for the beauty this old gem has in store for us!

Nate’s next project was to begin tearing down drywall and removing insulation alone in our tiny fixer upper. And I mean ALL of it, from everywhere in the house possible. It was a crazy big job and he tackled it one room at a time.

I’m so impressed with what he was literally able to accomplish on his own. I went to work during the day in a cozy office setting while he went to work on what looked like the set of a Dirty Jobs episode!

REMOVING DRYWALL AND INSULATION – LIVING ROOM

Nate removes the trim from the windows in our living room and also the drywall to finally get to the nasty old insulation inside. We are really ready to refresh this house with new insulation and walls!

As he really gets going, there seems to be something wrong. Nate grabs the camera to document his discovery behind our living room wall under the main window.

Are you ready for this? Termites! Yea, that’s what it looks like he uncovered. He needs to get rid of those nasty critters from our walls. How gross!

We are always finding these crazy animal surprises in our house! You ready for the list? Cockroaches, snails, a toad, gecko, and now these termites! Disgusting! They were so gross! Can you imagine if we just painted over the drywall as a quick and easy fix and didn’t really get behind the walls? We would have been living with those nasty critters today!

REMOVING DRYWALL AND INSULATION – OFFICE

Next up is the office! After some work in there, all you could see is drywall and insulation everywhere! It was straight awful. He busted up the office drywall and insulation including the ceiling. 

This was an absolutely dirty job. If you do this for a living, then Dirty Jobs should interview you! Good thing Nate had his goggles and mask on because the stuff that was flying all around him was just nasty. 

He was really going to town on the whole house! I can’t believe how fast he worked! And how much of a great job he did. Again, with no experience, just getting it done the best he could!

He was making some good progress and quite the mess. He filled up a ton of trash bags full of drywall and insulation. 

WALKTHROUGH CHECKING OUT DRYWALL AND INSULATION REMOVAL PROGRESS

Now, it was my turn to walkthrough the house to see the damage done, I mean the progress that was made!

Wow, I couldn’t believe how much he ripped up in the house! He finished it so fast too. Now I see what all the trash bags outside are filled with! Nate tore out the drywall and insulation behind the walls and put them all in bags. Out with the old and in with the new to come!

I noticed that the ceiling was also gone in the office and wondered if there was insulation up there too. Apparently there was and when it was knocked down, it covered the entire floor with a snowy like drywall crumble and insulation bits mixed in. The entire floor was covered with it! I’m so glad he had his mask on. 

Nate will need to come back and remove all the nails and all the little pieces of drywall and other bits of debris later on.

He didn’t get to the drywall in the bedroom yet, but will next. And it will be great to see that moldy bathroom ceiling come down. Everything is going to be so nice. And, the best part, our bathroom is going to extend out into a larger space! Now we can plan for two bathroom doors – one in the bedroom and one outside of the bedroom.

This reminds me of what he did in Hawaii when he took a nasty old tiny studio and made it amazing!  

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic home mostly on our own. Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead!

You can also watch a video about this here.

To see more adventures on our tiny fixer upper journey, click on the links below.

IS THE FLOORING LEVEL AFTER FOUNDATION REPAIRS AND NEW BEAMS?! | TINEY FIXER UPPER

MORE BATHROOM DEMO ON SMALL AND MINIMAL 1930’S COTTAGE + ORIGINAL SHIPLAP!