Francois Renovates: Wrath of the Nursery Ice Dams

Good Afternoon! I’m back with an update on what’s been happening in the nursery. As you know, we suspected some water damage on the west wall due to decades of ice dams, and as we pulled back the lath and plaster, we found some extremely rotted, uninsulated 2×4’s that needed replacing. However, no moisture or signs of mold as there was also a little hole in the exterior plaster that we’re assuming allowed everything to dry over the years. The plan was to replace the wall’s 2×4’s, insulate and dry wall, but before we could get started, we had to address the drooping ceiling crest.

You see, since the wall joists had rotted, the ceiling joists, though still in great, non water-damaged condition began to droop slightly in this area. In an effort to jack the ceiling back up, Ken built a fake “dummy” wall about 12″ from the exterior wall, and then, one by one, replaced each of the vertical 2×4’s (on the dummy wall) with slightly longer pieces by pounding them into place, and thereby lifting the ceiling. He did a couple rounds of this in order to get the ceiling as high as he could. We had to be careful though not to lift the ceiling too much which would crack the plaster everywhere else in the room, so as you can see there is still a little droop in the photo below. Not to fear, strategically placed molding will come to the rescue. The big win here is we now have a structurally sound, insulated wall and peace of mind that no one will have the roof caving in on them or breathing mold spores as they sleep and play in here!

Next bead board went up on the ceiling because A. did you see that gaping ceiling hole in the shot above? AND B. do you see the ugly popcorn on the rest of the ceiling? I completely understand that someone added a popcorn texture along the way to disguise inevitable plaster cracks. Makes sense. But I like to eat popcorn, not put it on my ceiling, so bead board it is. Pre-fab bead board is surprisingly affordable too. It was something like $20 per 4×8 sheet.

When we began the nursery, I was convinced that we were going to remove the carpet in here and redo the floors to match the rest of the house. I’m not a huge fan of wall to wall carpet, and if we were doing work in here, we might as well do the floors too, right? As we pulled the carpet up though, we discovered not only was there some pretty darn good water damage going on in here, a previous owner had laid down some kind of faux wood floor with a heavy duty adhesive. (The gray stuff in the picture below is the adhesive.) BIG BUMMER.

Sooooo, since I’m pregnant and haven’t been able to tackle any of the “construction” portion of the room, Ken had been taking on all of this himself.  (Let’s hear it for Ken!) I left the decision whether to redo the floors up to him. Can you guess what he decided? Hehe. Yep, the carpet stays for now, but don’t worry I have a big rug in mind that will help disguise most of it!

Make sure to check back in next week, as we have a little video where we’re talking board & batten & wallpaper selections for the room!

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