Pulling down some more plaster wall, in the attic this time, trying to figure out where a cable runs. I had hoped to use the old cable to pull a new cable but having ripped a strip pretty much side-to-side across the available space I'm concluding the most likely outcome of this is a new cable run. I'm still hoping to physically remove the old cable, even if only for completeness, but it will depend on how willing the cable is to be pulled once both ends are disconnected.
In the process I removed an old banister. Some genius decided to attach a banister that's little more than a 3/4" thick wooden bar with a few wooden offcuts to set it away from the wall, into the studs of a supporting wall with nails. And not just little nails either - they ranged from 6" to 8". Two of them were so big and so well rammed in my claw hammer wouldn't pull them out, so I ended up using a wrecking bar with my claw hammer as a fulcrum to pry them out.
So now I've got another 70lb of rubble sitting in the attic, probably another 10 gallons or so of cellulose that came out of the wall, and still no sign of the cable I'm hunting. Before long I'm going to take a circular saw to just cut the laths, clear a new run for a new cable, and rip the rest of it down at my leisure. I just want it done before it gets cold because I need to replace the insulation I removed.
