Don't build them like they used to

My brother was kidding me on Sunday as we were putting up some gyproc in my home. “You must really be excited when you work on a room that is square”, he noted. I think he was referring to my helping him on his cottage where all the walls were nice and square and to our cabin at the lake where the walls are nice and straight.
My home is now almost 108 years old, having been built in 1904 for a Miss Hamilton and her bastard son at a price of $800. My wife and I remodeled it in 1979 and brought everything up to code at the time. However, 30 some years later, there are parts of the home that are truly dated to the 1980’s.
Such was the master bathroom off the master bedroom. My wife had decided that that 2012 was the year to remodel the master bath. A pseudo budget was crafted. When we finished it in 1980, we covered all the walls in tongue and groove redwood cedar. We built it well. Every board was glued and nailed by hand before air nailers were a common household tool.
This was going to be a quick remodeling. Remove the paneling, paint the walls and install new facings on the vanity cabinets and fixtures. A new vanity top was going to be the big expense.
Thirty years later, my memory of how the room was put together was a blur. The paneling came off and the glue pulled pieces of the drywall away as well. I had forgotten that we had nailed cedar to the lathe and plaster on the ceiling and I came to the quick realization that the ceiling now had to be drywalled.
The quick job of removing the cedar dragged on. I came to the realization that none of the existing drywall could be salvaged and it too had to be removed.
My little job for a small room had grown.
Fortunately, my brother Don came to my rescue. I think he really enjoys drywalling and mudding. Together on Sunday we put the new drywall up. Getting eight-foot sheets into the room was our first challenge. And then we discovered that every wall seemed to have its own set of curves and every piece had to be custom fitted.
It was a not a pretty job in such a confining space, but we did succeed. It was at about the fourth piece of gyproc that my brother’s comment came. I couldn’t disagree. Old home may have their charms, but when you are remodeling, their secrets often become problems. The original walls had eight or nine layers of wallpaper and it came off relatively easy. You could look at the paper and almost tell the decade the paper was glued to the wall.
People have always commented to me that they don’t build houses like they used to. It is a good thing. The studs in my outside walls are a full four inches by two inches. The studs separating the bedrooms on the second floor have all been placed on the flat, but are a full two inches thick.
The lathe and plaster on each side of the studs is a full inch thick.
Today’s construction standards are much better. I suspect that fifty years from now someone will lament that they don’t build houses like they did in the year 2000.
The house may be over a century old, has lots of air leaks, has stairs that squeak and a basement walls that are over two feet thick, but it has stood the time test.
The budget has been shot, the easy changes have become a challenge and the job continues and will probably go well into February.
–Jim Cumming,
Publisher