A Lath a Minute

Imagine coming home from work to find that your non-English-speaking contractors have finished demolishing your kitchen. Except you wanted them to do the bathroom.

Okay, so that didn't happen. We really did want to demo the kitchen, and by golly, it's demolished. We took out the cabinets earlier and now it's just down to stripping the walls down to bare studs. Here's what it looks like in progress.

I worked on the plaster walls while Kathy removed green ceramic tiles from the floor. Honestly, I had the easy part. Those tiles are stuck on there, and prying them off one by one with a crowbar is a recipe for backache.

The walls are almost all original plaster and lath, as you can see. It's surprisingly easy -- and therapeutic -- to remove. First, you hit the plaster several times with any handy, massive object. A sledgehammer works well, but a crowbar, claw hammer, or fist can be used in a pinch. Then just scrape the cracked plaster off. Now you're ready to remove the lath work, which is also easy and fun. Grab one and yank. Repeat several hundred times. You get the idea.

The only downside is the dust. A lot of dust. I mean, really, a lot of dust. Lots of dust.