Styrofoam Ceilings and Hidden Chimneys

Maybe I am a glass-half-empty kinda girl - OK I'm definitely a glass-half-empty kinda girl, but I believe that you have to take the good with the bad.  In this case, the good is we are moving!  The bad - we are moving a lot sooner than we anticipated and we have a lot of work to do to prepare this house for renting.  And by we I mean me because I'm unemployed and highly skilled at all things DIY, non?

Well the other day I was taking down this Styrofoam ceiling that was put up maybe 50 years ago to add insulation to the house.  It has to be taken down now, because of renting regulations that claim it is a fire hazard. Safety first people!

So I put my Martha Stewart DIY home decorator extraordinaire hat on and I get busy, as Kelly Leighs often do.  The problem is, Martha makes home improvement look so easy.  But its just so not easy.  I mean I'm stripping this shit off the ceiling, my arm is dying, and all of a sudden, my scraper hits a hard spot.  I keep at it and what do I reveal....

An old chimney!!

They'd covered the hole with what appears to me to be a small paper plate - and had they bothered to remove the ashes?  Of course not!  When I knocked that little plate out of place I gave myself an ash shower!  I looked like a damn chimney sweep.  I feel like these things just don't happen to Martha.

I guess thats why my Dad made me watch This Old House all the time growing up.  He had the show preprogrammed on the TV so the channel would switch whenever it was on.  Sooooo annoying.  He insisted that the information would come in handy one day.  Can't say I remember how do anything from the show, but I will admit Norm gave me much more realistic expectations for home improvement projects.  They never go according to plan!