Welcome aboard dreamer!
I love that I've snuck a journal into the DIY section. Don't tell anyone, m'kay??
Highlites this weekend - Rat skeletons. 2 of them. Completely intact were found among the ceiling debris. I have been surprised that we have found virtually no signs of rodent issues while working on this house, and have gone so far as to leave dog food out to see if it was disturbed on our return the next weekend. It wasn't. But obviously at some point there were rats in here. The carcasses were neat to look at, but I didn't share with Momma or the boys.
My Dad came up on Friday night to lend a hand - I was VERY afraid of his help, but it worked out well, and we only had one conversation where I had to will myself not to throttle him. I think I behvaed quite nicely. And he was a plaster stripping machine. For a dude his age, it was amazing how much work he put in over Friday and Saturday. Last weekend I had dropped the living room ceiling, so on Friday night we carted it out to the trailer in pieces and cleaned up. On Saturday morning, I showed him how I was removing the plaster on the walls while keeping the lathe. He continued where I had left off the previous weekend, and by late afternoon had stripped out 3 of the 4 living room walls. While he worked downstairs, I set purlins into the master bedroom framing to support board insulation.
After Dad left, Momma came up. (She refused to work alongside Dad) On Sunday we made a run to Home Depot to get insulation for upstairs, and then Momma set to work stripping out the rest of the plaster. The living room is basically clear of plaster now, while upstairs has the "top ceiling" insulated. I need to do the sidewalls and a second layer up top. I am going to call the drywall dude today to let him know we should be good to go next Monday.
I am embarassed at how slow I have gotten up there. Really I'm way too comfortable. I look forward to me 'cottage' weekends, and spend as much time listening to podcasts and sipping beers as actually working. Who wants to make noise and interrupt a good podcast?
I need to have a performance evaluation with me and remind myself that I'm not much of an employee while I sit around.
Next steps:
Once drywall is up, we go into flooring mode. I'm keeping an eye on the costs of various options there. Laminate is cheap, looks cheap, and may or may not wear well depending on the paper and backing. Engineered is less cheap, looks less cheap, and wears about the same as hardwood, depending on the finish. Vinyl looks like the best option, but will telegraph the (crappy) subfloor through itself.
What do others have in rentals for entryway, livingroom, dining room, bedrooms?