Demo Day 1

Peach-colored irises growing at the back of the house.

Long before this house came into our lives, John and I toyed with the idea of flipping houses. After two days of real demolition, we've decided this will be our forever home and the first and last time to do this. Oof!

It's so much fun (?!) to do this for ourselves and visualize the house and our lives there...but that's where it ends. Shew! Sweat equity is real, folks. Sooooo, for all of those who do this for a living, our hats are off to you...and we're going to leave it to you after this. haha

This past week, we got the appraisal back, which was good news, and then officially closed on the house.

The first thing we did was make a few phone calls: electrician, contractor, and Rumpke for a dumpster.

We have a general game plan for each room and are fine-tuning our wants, needs, and what's truly feasible. You have to stay flexible, too, because who knows what surprises you'll find or what has to be re-configured.

While we waited for the electrician to stop by, some of the paneling came down. I have vivid memories of that thin, wood-like paneling from my grandparent's house -- it's almost endearing. That stuff is from a very specific era and we have two colors of it. Regular wood and a light color in the music room.

John got his crowbar and started in the kitchen. Underneath the paneling, we found an old pantry and a brick chimney that was covered up. It wasn't a proper fireplace so maybe it was hooked up to a wood stove at one point.

There are at least 5 layers of wallpaper on the walls in the kitchen and dining room and some of it is really cool.

As I mentioned before, this wall that currently separates the kitchen from the dining room will be opened up. Pony wall! ;)

Here's the old pantry and to the left is the brick chimney.

Brick Chimbley!

Through that doorway on the other side of the refrigerator, is the second bedroom and back bathroom. Definitely an add-on. Once we pull the rest of the paneling down, that will give us a little more room so that we can use for tall pantry cabinets.

The condition of these floors is such that most likely, we will just cover what's already there with vinyl 'tile', especially since they aren't very level. It's our best option.

Look what we found beneath the ceiling tiles: bead board! This ol' house, she keeps on giving.

In the meantime, John's Mom, Theresa, began pulling the paneling down in the music room. At one time, this was lovely floral wallpaper. The built-in bookcase will come out so we can build a new one, hopefully on both sides of the fireplace (and we may leave the brick exposed).

The door to the right there is a closet -- it's the funniest thing because it's not a real closet. Not really. It's TINY. I don't even know what to compare it to, honestly, that would give you an idea of the inside. It's barely a foot deep and about 4 ft across. Very odd. Maybe pictures and a video will explain it better (I'll do that soon).

Uh oh. We've got some black mold on this wall from previous water damage, so the plaster is going to have to come out and be replaced with drywall.

Next up, Theresa got on the ladder and we took out the ceiling tiles. There were a couple of big holes in the plaster ceiling and A LOT of dust and gunk came down with it. Yuck. Luckily no animals! I kept expecting a nest of squirrels or possums or something. Not Opossum. It's possum(s).

The picture below barely captures the amount of dust in the room -- there were huge clouds of it.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of asbestos in the house -- between the tiles and insulation -- but don't worry -- we've been wearing masks the entire time! The "Don't worry" is for my Mama...I know what she's thinking ;)

This entire ceiling will have to come out. A whole new level of fun, right? It will look so much better ...eventually!

By this point, everything we tore down was piling up! Not to mention the carpet we pulled up that is sitting in the garage. Rumpke wasn't going to deliver the dumpster until Friday (and it's Wednesday), so it was a good stopping place. We accomplished quite a bit.

Our contractor told us that the more demolition we do ourselves, the more money we'll save. It will be at least a month before he can get to our house, anyway, so there's time to get rooms gutted and prepare this ol' gal for the next phase of her life.

Here's what's on the demolition list:

• Dining Room/Kitchen: remove the wall, widen the doorway
• Music Room: knock out the entire ceiling, take out part of the plaster wall that has mold, close up the "closet"
• Back Bedroom/Bathroom: Completely gut from floor to ceiling, bring out walls into the bedroom for a larger bathroom. Bathroom will be almost rebuilt from scratch.

Once those things are done, the electrician can come in and rewire everything, install new outlets, and give this house a jolt from 110v to a 220v capability. After that, the heating and air will be installed.

More to come!