Drywall

Drywall is up! It's strange to see the house with walls but everything is moving really quickly now. We're making lots of decisions on cabinetry, countertops, flooring, paint and light fixtures. So many decisions. We also have a new roof which was not in our original plan, but turned out to be a necessity before the walls went up. And new windows! I really liked the 3 over 1 pane we picked as I think its adds to the farmhouse charm. We also removed the aluminum awnings over the windows. I'm sure we can repurpose these for something but I'm not sure what yet. We also saved all our old windows in hopes of using some in the building and some for craft projects. We have old doors and windows galore... like father like daughter.

Framing

The framing has begun! The space is starting to take on a new shape. Walls separating family room and living room have been opened up and headers put in. Also our power lines have been buried underground and our service is being upgraded. Time for some grass seed! I am eager to get to some projects outside now that the inside work is moving forward. I see lots of pruning, weeding and landscaping in our near future.

Contractor walk through

We had a walk through with our contractor yesterday to get this project rolling! We went room by room and decided what walls and windows were staying/going and where closets are being added. We also settled on configuration of master bath. I'm really excited about the bathroom because we are using an old pedestal bathtub my Dad salvaged from an old house way back when. I remember it sitting in the old barn for as long as I can remember then it moved to my parents' new house and served as a planter for cucumbers last summer. We also lugged it to two antique shows. Guess there was a good reason it never sold, but man, that thing was HEAVY to tote around! Our contractor should get started by end of this week first of next. I'm ready for the porta-john (I'd say I'm pretty easy to please)! Our contractor tells us 3-4 months, so I'm hopeful for a September move in!
 

Family room

Kitchen

First floor bath and bedroom

Living Room



Master suite





Demo delirium

They really make all that demo look fun on HGTV... Demo is nearly complete but there is always one more nail to pull! Walls and ceilings are down, toilets, tubs and sinks are gone and wiring has been pulled. We are so close! We raised the ceiling height in the rooms upstairs from 7 ft. to 9.5 ft.  I'm glad we decided to go this route as it definitely opens up the space and gives the rooms a much larger feel.
 



Demo in progress

Chimney is gone to open up bedroom upstairs and make room for range in kitchen. No worries, we are keeping fireplace in the other living room.

 

Goodbye linoleum , hello subfloor and hardwoods. Plan is to tile bathrooms and kitchen and refinish hardwoods in the downstairs spare bedroom, living room, den and 3 rooms upstairs. We also found a few treasures behind the demo- beadboard ceilings in the dinning room, slate hearth under faux brick fireplace and cleaned up the drain board sink from the back porch.



It raining, its pouring, uh oh the bathroom is flooding

Demo began the day we closed and the whole place was pretty much cleared out in 5 days. So far, we've only ran across a few minor repairs that will need to be addressed, but nothing out of the scope of the original project. Demo day #2 did bring a small surprise as we turned the water on. Apparently a pipe had been disturbed during demo heading to the 2nd floor bathroom and we had water pouring from the ceiling in the first floor bathroom. I panicked at first, but was reassured that everything was going to be gutted anyway so really all was OK. All the wet ceiling tiles and drywall came out of the bathroom, the leak was quickly identified and pipe sealed. Crisis adverted and more demo ensued.

Pre-demo cleanup

Wanted to share what we've actually cleaned out of the house before demo began. Part of our negotiations included removal of the previous owners "stuff" that was left behind. Thought this was worth a peek because, well, there was a lot of it! We did take several loads to a local thrift store but we also hauled a load or 2 to the landfill.