Two weeks down, and several more to go!

First, can I just say…. oy.

I don’t think either of us have ever been so warn out in our lives. And I’m a mom, that’s sayin’ something!

The demolition phase is lasting a little longer than we expected. Every day we continue to open up walls, cut through 2x4s and bulky headers, removing heavy doors and the amount of drywall we are getting rid of seems like it will never end! All of the original flooring is now gone (thank God). Laundry room… good riddance! The kitchen… adios! The bathrooms… (mostly) gutted. We’re getting there! I can see the light at the end of this very dirty tunnel.

By taking out so much of the old unwanted parts of this house, it kinda feels like we’ve put our house on an extreme weight loss plan. We’re trimming off the stubborn bits like those pesky love handles or that little pouch in front where you store your extra cookies. Over the last two weeks our house has lost a ton of weight! Literally! We’ve completely filled one huge 30 cubic yard dumpster with construction debris, which has an estimated weight of 3-4 tons. And we’re not done yet! Oh nooo, the second load is already about half full! I bet by working off the heavy carpets and getting rid of several walls, this house has dropped at least 3 jeans sizes!

While we have been working hard on slimming down our house, we’ve also started on some exciting new projects that will help us move toward the next phase of our renovation. The ground floor has been our main focus (mostly because it still stinks upstairs). And since we are on a strict budget and trying to save where we can, we’re learning new things and giving it our best to do almost everything ourselves. So far, so good!

For instance, Michael was our carpenter and electrician this week! He framed in and enclosed the unneeded door off the kitchen. He also framed in a new wall in our kitchen, which will be home to the new refrigerator. After that, he identified all of the existing wiring, which was really tedious. When we removed the ceiling in the kitchen, there was a serious nest of wires and the sub panel was no help at all. Once the existing wiring got worked out, he wired new locations for outlets and switches, as well as the hookups for the fridge, oven, range hood, dishwasher, and microwave! Seriously hard work, and he did an amazing job!

While Michael was having fun with electric, I had a fun time learning to be a plumber. My job was to reroute a vent pipe, originally hooked up to the washing machine, to another wall and reconnect it in the ceiling. Nailed it!

Kennedy was a huge help this week pulling nails and staples out of the subfloor in the living room and dining room. She wasn’t very excited about helping, but she earned herself a little spending money so she was happy about that!

Things are progressing every day, and hopefully soon the demolition phase will be done and we can move on to more fun things :)