A hard day of work.

I pulled a groin muscle at Derby practice last night. I'm alright, but I just can't seem to get it together enough to skate for a solid week. I am so frustrated with myself. I am out of shape and cranky.
As usual, when I am frustrated with myself, I turn to things I can control. So today, Matt and I decided that it was high time we cleaned out the plaster from the kitchen on the second floor.
We pulled down the ceiling and the back wall last fall, and then we got sidetracked. Windows had to go in on the third floor, the basement needed organizing, and then there was that whole "I think I'll start a roller derby league" thing. Well, this morning I decided to get down to business. I strapped on the safety goggles and dust mask, threw some Gogol Bordello on the CD player and started shoveling.
I forgot to take pictures before I cleaned up, but almost everyone who reads this has seen my upstairs, so you all know how much plaster I hauled out. I have to hand it to Matt. He unload all the buckets. I did most of the shoveling and stacked the lathe on the back porch, but he did the heavy lifting.
After we got all the debris out of the second floor kitchen and into the dumpsters, I dragged out the shop-vac and went over the floors. I love that the shop-vac has strong enough suction to get all the crap out of the cracks in the floorboards. It's kind of fun to get down on the floor a suck up all that dusty schmutz. Tomorrow I'm going to wet mop the floor and then we'll see how it's shaping up. I want to get the muratic acid wash on the walls this week, and possibly the first layer of varnish as well. Then I guess I'll strip the woodwork before we insulate the ceiling and hang the drywall. I'm not sure exactly what we are going to do with this room when the house is finished, but part of me still wants to put copper-colored tin-style ceiling tiles up there. I just think they would look so cool with the stripped wood and exposed brick. I want put up a tin-style ceiling in my first floor kitchen, but the rehab on the second floor is more pressing than me getting a fancy new kitchen any time soon. I may turn the second floor kitchen into my office/studio space, but for now I just need to focus on cutting down the overall dust factor on the second floor. As of right now, we have no loose plaster laying around. I cannot guarantee it will stay that way, but at least we are making progress.