Kitchen = demolished

Thank God, the really messy part is over - well, at least until we start sanding some drywall.  There were all kinds of weird superficial things in our kitchen that made us want to rip it out, but as it turns out, the WTF-factor is more than skin-deep.

"I can't unsee this."

Let's start with some seriously WTF framing around the right window.  Note the hugeness and weirdness of the header - it's totally different than the identical window to its left, and every single other window in the house.  It looks like they may have started framing out a wider window, but there were no signs of that the plaster had been altered, so they must have changed their minds at the last minute before they sealed up the walls?  We'll never know. WTF.

Here's something that isn't so much WTF as it is just a plain old fire hazard.

 That is (was) active knob and tube wiring (this part being a knob).  Knob and tube wiring can be safe, as long as you can prove that it hasn't been altered by crazy DIYers, eaten by squirrels, or had its rubber cover degrade in the past 86 years.  However, one of the key principles of knob and tube wiring is that it needs to be suspended in open air in order for heat to dissipate.  Soooo, when you blow in insulation, you fill up that airspace, so technically there's very little air in which the heat can dissipate, so....you see where I'm going with this.  Looking forward to getting the rest of this out of the attic - the kitchen is the last of it on the first floor.  Hooray.

This is what we found in the spot where we were hoping our fancy new exhaust fan would exit.

 Yeah, that's the new (early '00s) plumbing for the upstairs bathroom.  When the kitchen is done, the bathroom will officially take the title of Most Embarrassing Room In The House, and we hope to rearrange everything, but we think this drain needs to stay...it's a good thing we never actually got around to buying a fan.  Looks like we'll be investigating downdraft options.

Here's a cross section of the insulation we found: the gray closest to the windows is blown-in cellulose, and the pinkish is blown in fiberglass (aka the itchiest substance on earth.) Also some wads of pink fiberglass batts crammed in around what must have been a light fixture box at one time. All gone now and to be replaced with nice new insulation!

 Here's why replacement windows - windows that you install within the existing frame of a previous window- kind of suck....

They're nearly impossible to insulate around without ending up with huge gaps like this, so you're really only solving half the problem (the other half being the old drafty windows themselves.)  That slot is where the sash weights would have moved up and down to counterbalance the old windows.  We found the weights still stuck in the slot, their corresponding windows long since removed. There are also smaller gaps all the way around the window frame.  With replacement windows, you can try to insulate around them by squeezing whatever you can in the cracks, but you can never really be sure if you're getting to all the air space unless you open the walls up.  If we had the cash money, I'd replace the replacement windows in a heartbeat.  It's also kind of silly that they'll be white forever when we have natural wood trim everywhere.  Sigh.  Perversely, we're lucky that the second floor windows haven't been replaced, so when we do it, we can do it right with windows designed for new construction.  Made out of wood.

One more nugget.

This outlet was supported entirely by spray foam which happened to be stuck to that pipe in the background.  Somehow I don't think that's up to code either.

Next:  more insulation and new, less-sketchy electricity everywhere!  And lots of showering until that fiberglass itch goes away.  {scratch, scratch}