Week Two, Check!

The second week of demo has finished and now it's time to put humpty dumpty back together again!

I shot a quick video of the progress thus far, which is below. I'm still amazed at just how much work has been done in the span of 10 days. The good news is that we passed our electrical inspection yesterday, so all is moving forward as planned.

Next week, Mike said we'll really start to see things come together. He's planning on finishing the drywall/mudding/sanding of the bar and kitchen, putting the texture on the ceiling in the kitchen, living room and den, trimming in the new door, putting in our new French doors in the den (a late addition to our original plans, YAY!), filling in the hole from the old carport door and starting the floors... if there's any time left! *PHEW*

We've decided to stay with our 'host family' (AKA Mark and Sarah) for a little while longer. Dave and I don't really care to go back to living at 5112 until the flooring is complete- and we're sure that Ledder will appreciate that decision too, since he doesn't wear shoes. Mike said flooring should be complete during the week after Labor Day, so perhaps the weekend after Labor Day will be 'move back in day'? Regardless, we're grateful to Mark and Sarah for having us at their house, even though they've been in Maine the whole time! They should be back this week, and the fun of a full house will begin =)

What's behind door #2?

That's right, the final big piece of demo is done, and we now have a new (wider) opening to the carport! Yesterday the guys did drywall work at the 'bar' and ran electrical for the bar. Today was a heavy work day of removing pieces of brick, mortar and framing.

The bar has been drywalled and is ready for muddin'!

I was once again in shock when I went to the house for my daily inspection. Who knew that just 10 short days ago that our house would be so radically transformed? And to think, the real work to actually put the house back together hasn't even started. Amazing!

The boys get to have all the fun!

(That's the french doors in the den you see through the hole)

Apparently, our contractor, Mike, was a little apprehensive of today's block cutting; he was nervous that the top concrete support framing the door may not hold after removing the blocks, but luckily it held and we're set to put the new door in tomorrow (VERY glad that he told me this little factoid after the cutting was finished). He said that as long as this part of the project came off out without a hitch, then the rest of the work should be smooth sailing. So I say, hoist the main sail and let's go!

As if cutting this huge hole in the wall wasn't enough hard work for one day, the guys also dropped electrical for the two new fans in the living room today. We hope the addition of two new fans should help enhance the air conditioning system and cool down the house more effectively. Tomorrow the guys will be finishing electrical (fingers crossed that no one gets electrocuted- 2 days of pulling electric without electrocution and counting. YAY), trimming the new door in, starting to block up the old door hole and blocking up the old (and thoroughly useless) exhaust fan in the kitchen ceiling. Is that all?!

One last exciting note, the tile for our backsplash arrived today. The picture doesn't do the colors justice, it's such a great combination of colors and texture. I just can't wait to see it on the wall, in action. Mike said today 'I think the end [result of the project] will be awesome. I can't wait'. Neither can we, Mike....

Our new 'security system'

Shock and Awe

I wasn't going to post today, but after a trip to the house, I'm just beaming!

Today the guys took down the old supports in the 'wall' and rebuilt them to create the framework for the bar. After getting some teasing text messages from Mike (#1= Bad news, wall can't be removed. Sorry) (#2= Just kidding, ur wall is gone) and having my heart skip a beat for a minute, I was psyched to get to the house and see what happened today.

Dave made me come get him after work so that he could see the look on my face when we went in- not knowing whether this was a good or a bad thing, I put my faith into Dave's hands and held my breath. What greeted me when he opened the door was beyond what I could have imagined.

Wide open!

There it is, no more support structures from floor to ceiling! And the power box has been moved! Oh my, I can really start to envision good things happening now! The false walls have come down and the house is looking huge! Well, at least as huge as an old 50's style FL ranch home can look!

I think I stood around for about 10 minutes with my mouth agape, amazed at how far we've come in just one week. Tomorrow Mike is to be dropping the electrical for the new fans in the living room and if there's time, cutting the hole for the new door (which we picked out on Sunday, very exciting- if you count picking out doors exciting? I know I do these days!).

We also picked up our laminate flooring and tile on Sunday. We spent way too much time at Lowe's that day, and I think the folks that work there are starting to recognize us. 34 boxes of laminate flooring can really turn your truck into a low rider, but not as much as 18 boxes of porcelein 12"x12" floor tile can! I had the Sanford and Son theme song playing over and over as we made our trips from Lowe's.

Left: Pergo laminate in Natural Bamboo

Right: Kitchen/den tile in Tuscan Bone

I shall be having sweet dreams tonight, I'm very excited... *sigh*

First drink's on me when the bar opens!

Mr. Sutherlin, tear down this wall!

Week one is finished, and did the time fly by!

As promised, Mike and crew took down the plaster on the main wall separating the kitchen from the dining room on Friday. The house is really starting to look different! Throughout the day I received text messages, taunting me with the fun I was missing and couldn't wait to get back to 5112 to see the changes.

Mike's text message pictures showing me what they were up to

Dave and I headed to the house after work and once the door opened from the carport I was instantly in shock at what I was seeing (or, what I wasn't seeing- the wall)! There are two false walls supporting the ceiling right now- one on either side of what's left of the original wall. The support beams from the original wall, and electrical wires are still left, but all that will be removed on Monday. Initially, Mike was thinking he'd leave the bottom portion of the wall to build the bar from, but it will all have to come down and be re-supported on Monday. This puts us one day behind schedule, but Mike's happy and excited, so I'm not worried!

It's already starting to look so big!

Thursday's task was removing the popcorn ceiling (insert choir of angels singing here). Such an outdated look, not to mention the amount of dust that gets trapped in there, making the ceiling look dirty. *phew*

Looking ahead, Monday will involve removing the rest of the wall and building the supports for the new portion of the wall, along with electrical work. Tuesday will be the day a new door frame gets cut, and the old door from the carport will be boarded up. Found out yesterday that the cabinets will be here September 14th, and the wood flooring is already in. All very exciting stuff and I'm looking forward to see everything we picked in person!

Until then, 5112 will rest for the weekend and wait for more 'surgery' on Monday.

Many thanks to my friend Brandi who helped create a new layout for the blog! She's the driving force behind the background and fun colors you see on the blog. She's super creative and in the business of designing blogs; if you're ever in the need for a blog to be designed, check her out!

Dirty, dirty, dirty!

After Tuesday's Work Day

Day three is done... and what a mess those boys have made! But I'm not complaining :)

The remnants of the carpet padding and baseboards made their way out of the house yesterday. Strangely enough there was a black substance which looked like tar (but was really a heavy glue) under the carpet pad, which made removal take a bit longer. Home building must have been radically different in the 50's!

That's a layer of tile, then linoleum, and then another layer of tile on top. Huh??!

Finally, the bottom layer of flooring in the kitchen *Phew*

Surprise: Wood under the tile in the den

Today's task was removing the tile from the kitchen and den and creating a false wall to shore up the ceiling in order to start taking down the wall to the kitchen. Follow me? You see, the wall we are intending to remove in order to open up our house is a load-bearing wall. In order to work around this situation, the finished bar will have a support column at the end of it to help keep the ceiling from falling, in addition to some reinforcing beams in the ceiling area over the bar.

The 'false wall' to shore up the ceiling

It's all very confusing to me, but I leave it in the capable hands of Mike and his crew. The thought of the ceiling and roof caving into our living room scares the pants off me, but I try not to think about the 'worst case scenario'!

On a side note, Mike gave us a shopping list of items to pick up ASAP (or as Dave likes to put it.... 'Stand in the shower and tear up $100 bills'). We need to get a new door for the carport (hole gets cut next week- yikes!), 3 new ceiling fans, and tile for the kitchen and den floors. Tonight, just for grins and giggles, I drug Dave to the Home Depot, and guess what! We have 2 of the 3 fans- we walked in, saw the model, and at the same time said, 'That's the one'! Now, to agree on a fan for over the kitchen table....

I can't wait to see what adventures tomorrow holds!

D-Day

Before

Slowly but surely the clock counted down and we arrived at D-day! We spent a frenzied week of packing boxes, moving furniture and all around evacuating 5112 in order to prepare for the work to begin this morning.

After dropping the dogs off at our 'rental house' (thanks, Mark and Sarah for putting us up!), I hurried back to see Mike and his crew in action. They wasted no time in ripping the place down, WOAH! I tell you, our contractor, Mike, is sheer brute force in action. He made very quick work of ripping the cabinets off the wall, using his hands, arms, legs and a hammer here and there.

Trent started working on the brick wall that framed the double oven (While I'll miss the space of the double oven, I surely won't miss that old POS that couldn't keep a constant temperature!). I joked that the brick wall was the only hurricane-proof part of our house.

I decided that I had had enough of watching for the morning, as I needed to get moved in to the Hunker Down Inn, and left our little house in the capable hands of Mike and Trent. By the end of the day, the house had become a shell of its former self- the kitchen is completely gutted and all of the carpet has been ripped out of the dining room, living room and hallway. I can't get over how much it echoes in there!

With only a couple hidden surprises brought to light without a covering of cabinets (including a pretty big structural crack), things appear to be rolling smoothly on. Seems like today's work went quickly, and with a little luck, there won't be too many more unexpected surprises.

Tomorrow promises more carpet pad removal, and I think the removal of the tile in the kitchen and den floors. Can't wait to see how that will look!

Until then, 5112 patiently awaits the next phase of its facelift.....

Kitchen After

Living Room After

Check, check, and check!

Realizing that demolition starts in a week and one day, Dave and I figured that we needed to get serious about this project. Up until today, we had only packed about a dozen boxes, and still felt like we had barely made a dent. Contracts have been signed and the men with sledgehammers and saws will be arriving soon- It's go time, people!

This morning, we headed to our friendly Lowe's in search of the perfect combination of cabinets, counters, backsplash and flooring (oh, my!). Knowing that our tastes somewhat differ at times, I was wondering what the day would bring.... We had already researched and knew several things: we either wanted white or wood cabinets in one of two styles; we wanted some sort of Corian counter; and we wanted the bamboo laminate flooring for the living room/hallway/den (or did we want tile in the den?). Ohhh, boy!

After enlisting the help of a very helpful Lowe's team member (and running between two departments repeatedly to compare samples), we finally settled on cabinets in a Maple Cognac color, Corian counter in a color called Granola (of course it's one of the more expensive colors!), the bamboo flooring, kitchen floor tile in Tuscan Bone, and a glass tile backsplash in green and white hues called Nature Seaweed Stone. No fighting at all!

Still floating on our excitement of getting this task completed, we came home to pack more. Looking around, the walls are bare, the bookshelf is empty (and posted on Craig's List for sale) and the POD is about 1/2 full. Next project is to get the living room furninture donated ASAP. I have a feeling this week is going to fly by....