We bought a 1880 house last summer and have since had the house insulated. We are now in the midst of renovating the kitchen, doing most of the work ourselves. We had planned the kitchen remodel from the beginning and so the insulation people did not insulate the kitchen walls. However, they did insulate the second floor above the kitchen, and it turns out that we have balloon-framing so that the kitchen walls got filled with insulation anyway! We have to do some wall reconstruction on the insulated wall, and we are trying to figure out how to keep the insulation in the walls as much as possible. (At the very least, we would like to not empty out the second floor if possible.) We are looking for suggestions!

The top part of the wall was plastered but disintegrating, and the bottom 1/3 of the wall has beadboard (which is made up of tongue and groove boards). I have removed the plaster but have left the plaster so far. Options I am considering:

1. Leave the lathe and paneling in, to contain the insulation completely and require no further demolition. This would make modifications to the electrical and gas line more work. Also, there is currently a 1-1.5" lip where the paneling ends that I would need to deal with somehow.

2. Remove the paneling and lathe, trying to put in place some sort of barrier at the ceiling in order to keep the insulation in the walls.

3. Remove all of the insulation from the entire wall and re-insulate the second floor after we close up the walls.

Again, any suggestions welcome.