Ok, so today I punched a hole in the ceiling for attic access.  I wanted to verify that the wall I wanted to take out was not a load bearing wall.  So I chopped a hole and was more pleasantly surprised than I was in the crawl space. I started the hole with a hand drywall saw, but shortly thereafter resorted to a reciprocating saw as I knew there weren't any complete electrical circuits, plumbing or gas above that area.

There doesn't appear to be any glaring problems with the attic other than it's lack of insulation.  It has 2" of insulation and mouse turds, but that's not much.  I pretty much expected that, so it's not a surprise.

So, having confirmed that the wall was not load bearing, I ripped that bugger out.  

Everything went fine until the last step when an improperly installed kitchen ceiling fell out.  The guy who did it, didn't screw the drywall into the proper boards and instead just rested it on the wall.  I couldn't have predicted that and therefore, don't feel particularly bad about it.

Nevertheless, I didn't want to air condition the outdoors while I wait for a guy to come and re-drywall my ceiling(I hate doing drywall and drywall guys are cheap).  So I headed to Lowe's, picked up some 4 Mil plastic and firring strips.  I also grabbed a tiny roll of insulation and some contractor cleanup bags. There were a ton of nails and stuff in the way, so I cleaned those up when I got back and then set out to seal up the holes I'd made and stuffed insulation into the areas that didn't seal very well.  

Here are some pics showing how the room has opened up.  It also shows where the stove will probably go at.  I set down some paper to show where the hearth will go.  I may attempt to set the hearth level with the existing floor so there's not a trip hazard.  That may not be easy, so I'll just have to run it by a chimney guy or something.  

Anyhow, it was a busy ass day.  I'm sore, tired and clean now.  The crock pot has spit out something edible, if gray and institutional looking.  So I'll eat some of that, watch some TV and crash.  Perhaps fence tomorrow, perhaps not.  Then Tuesday I'm headed to Boston.

As always, if you want to look at the unedited, full size pictures, they can be found on flickr.com 

I still have some miscellaneous junk laying around the yard.  After mowing yesterday, I hooked up the mower and dragged the steel items to the curb.  Local junkers will stop by and take them to be recycled. 

I also started digging up some posts that the old owner of the house had set out for some strange reason.  I was doing fine until I ran into around 150# of concrete with my shovel and broke it.  I've had it for around 5 years now and it was the cheapest one Home Depot sold.  I'd say I've gotten my use out of it.  I'll probably buy a slighter nicer one this time around. 

This weekend looks to be a good one for getting things done.  I've got most of my fencing hardware lined up and plan to tackle it hardcore this weekend.  

I also talked with Wendell from Brown Restoration today.  They're the guys who did a nice job replacing my roof on the house in Belton, MO.  He's 99.9% that I don't have a load bearing wall around the chimney.  In order to finish out that final 0.1% he told me how to get up in the attic and determine 100% that I can take that wall out.  In essence, removing the wall will turn the kitchen and living room into a great room with the stove helping separate and divide the area up.  

So I will probably tackle both of these tasks this weekend.  Chilli may be able to help with fencing Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, but we'll have to see.  Regardless, I'm getting some work done this weekend.