Getting Started

Naturally, as soon as we took possession of the house, I was ready to start knocking down walls. Unfortunately, I had a lot to learn about how much planning goes into something like this. We started measuring everything and getting a somewhat accurate drawing of the current layout of the house using a computer program on my dad's computer. We then went in and drew out how we wanted it to be so that we would have something to show contractors. We met with several different people to walk through the house, discuss options, and get quotes.

Once we got quotes, we adjusted our plans and determined what we would do ourselves. We are doing all the demolition ourselves and hauling off all of the debris. We are doing all the painting and Craig is laying hardwood floors throughout the upstairs. Craig is probably going to do the tiling in the bathroom. Basically, anything we can do, we're doing!

We also started getting quotes on hardwoods, cabinets, countertops, etc. Meeting with all these people to make decisions and get quotes has been very time consuming, especially because we are trying to work around both of our full-time work schedules. I never imagined there could be so many little decisions we would have to make: Where do you want this light switch? How long do you want the drawer pull? What kind of vent hood? Sliding door or swing door? And it goes on, and on, and on!!! Again- fun, but overwhelming!!

We finally got started on September 23rd, after nearly a month of planning. First, we pulled off all of the floor boards, crown molding, chair molding, door frames, etc.

Next, we pulled down all the paneling in the den. Craig sure was glad to see that go!

When we took down the paneling on one of the walls in the den, we discovered an old milk jug sitting in between the studs! One of the workers building the house must have left it there and it has been sitting inside the wall for over 40 years! Crazy! I'm going to clean it up and keep it to use in decorating :)

My parents have been so wonderful and helpful in this process. They have come over to the house many evenings and weekends, let us eat with them many nights so that we can get over to the house quickly after work, loaned us tools, and given great advice, not to mention letting us live with them! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Mom and I in our face masks to avoid getting sick from all the dust we're stirring up while knocking down walls!

Next, we began knocking out sheet rock on the interior walls. This was pretty fun, especially at first. This is where we got to take a sledge hammer and really let out some frustration! 

The most difficult part was breaking all the sheet rock up in to small pieces so that we could bag it up and put in trash cans, rather than having to pay to take it to the dump. Fortunately, we have quite a few family members that live within a couple miles of our house, so we've been loading up bags of trash in Craig's truck the night before trash pick up and distributing them to all of the family trash cans!

We then began tearing out the kitchen. We took out all the appliances and moved them to the basement (except for the fridge, which would not fit through the door). We took off all the cabinet doors and took out the drawers so that the cabinet units would not be as heavy. We are saving the cabinets for Craig to use in his workshop. Here, Craig is disconnecting the plumbing so we can pull out the cabinet with the sink.

This top cabinet was extremely stubborn. We all four wrestled with it for quite a while before finally getting it down.

Hanna and Joe came over to check out the house and we put them to work! They were extremely helpful and we really appreciated their willingness to pitch in!

We pulled up the carpet in the front of the house, then Hanna and I went around prying up tack strips.

Once we got the demolition started, our contractor, David, came in to start doing his part of the work. This is where he began cutting a hole in the floor to relocate the stairs.

Here again you can see the hole in the floor where the stairs will be. The fridge is in the den because it will not fit out the door until we take out some of the studs! Also, you can see the lovely linoleum we discovered under the carpet in the den...

In the basement, we began tearing out the crudely finished room. We did this partially because the room was not well done, but also because it was necessary to move the stairs.

As you can see, we made quite a mess!

Here we are pulling down the walls in the downstairs bathroom - again, so we can make room for the stairs. We are also building a laundry room next to the bathroom and are going to go ahead and expand the bathroom enough so that we can put a shower in eventually.

So, at the end of the first part of the demolition process, we basically had everything stripped down to just the studs of the inner walls. We could not take out the studs yet because many of them were load-bearing.

This is what used to be the kitchen!

Next up, David has to support the roof so that we can take out the studs and make the room truly open!!!