Goodbye Old Wall
During the last week we finished the new wall, moved almost everything in the basement, and then today I took down the old wall.
It’s hard to tell from this photo, but the new space is pretty huge. It’ll make a great workshop after much more work. It is about 50% larger than the biggest workshop I had thought I’d be able to build.
The laundry/storage room came out nicely too:
The wood rack, dust collector, and general building materials will move out of the way of course. The wall came out the perfect size for 3 48″ wide by 18″ deep shelves.
Now I just need to figure out how to get the old wall to the dump. I hate throwing away this much stuff, especially since it appears to have been built in the last couple of decades. The old storage room was insulated for some reason and that really increases the amount of debris. There is a lot more to come, I still need to remove most of the ceiling and the back and outside walls.
Hmm bedroom? Sauna? I”m trying to think of why else you”d insulate a room that way.
If any part of that old wall is salvagable, find out if Seattle has the equivalent of Portland’’s Rebuilding Center (a store that receives and re-sells house parts, a non-profit that is vaguely connected to Habitat for Humanity). Donate your old house parts there.
Sweetie and I donated a half-bundle of old composition shingles there last year and picked up a brand-new, still-in-the-wrapper toilet seat for two bucks.
Maybe there’’s something like this where you live?
There are a few stores like that in Seattle. The closest is the Re*store which is also a non profit. I picked up my wall cabinets there.
I salvaged the lumber that I could from the wall, but there isn”t currently a good way to recycle or reuse drywall. I spent a little time researching this and there are places that will recycle drywall, but only if it is new scrap (from current construction) and not if it has been painted.