Another Weekend, Another Successful Effort

January 20th brings us to the third full Saturday of working on my new house. The crew was smaller but still very successful. It was nice to work in a smaller group that had room to work without tripping over each other. On the docket to be completed was to finish the first floor demolition, demolition of the second floor, start pulling nails and start removing the chimney of the original oil burning furnace. Amazing to think how much work can be completed in three short weeks.

I worked with Greg S., Teresa N., Kevin F., and my brother to complete the removal of second floor remains. Mainly were the stairs leading up to the second floor from the first that proved to be a bit more tedious that we had originally planned for. we made quick work of that area and Sean and Kevin moved on to starting to remove the chimney on a very slick roof.

We had received 2"-3" of snow the night before and my brother and I had cleared part of the roof hoping that it would melt as the day went on. No such luck, but that wasn't going to deter him from climbing on the roof and risking peril just to demolish a chimney. Of course Kevin couldn't let Sean have all the fun and joined him. I just turned a deaf ear and made sure they both signed the hold harmless agreement.

Greg, Teresa and I moved on to the first floor dining room and entry way. It was messy and I'm just about to the end of being able to handle the filth and muck of tearing out plaster and lathe. Whatever made me think that I could do all of this BEFORE my wife died and I was thinking I could do this all myself was obviously insanity and stupidity laden. With the great amount of help I've received I have come to appreciate better just how much of an undertaking this project is and how much people care.

At the same time Steve N. was up on the second floor pulling nails from the studs. For hours, when Greg and I took a simultaneous break, you could heart the methodical thump, screech, thwack of Steve pulling nail after nail. Then the shuffle, shuffle, thud of him moving the three feet over with the ladder to the next set of studs. Quick a contrast to the complete roar of avalanche of plaster and crap that Greg and I were pulling from the ceiling.

To keep the entry short, we moved pretty well for six total people and got most of the list of the things covered on the to do list. we somehow and somewhere did something to cause the power of the 2nd floor to stop working, so going into this weekend's work of having roughly 15 people in the house will be interesting to say the least. There's going to be a lot of nail pulling and cleaning which should be a treat if we don't have power to run vacuums on the second floor.

Things are progressing nicely and the architect and interior designer are both in this weekend to help plan the layout of the new house. That's an exciting prospect to think about considering all I've been able to focus on is prepping for demolition. It will be fun to think of how this house will be rebuilt and start to see some of the plans Leslie and I thought of come to be put into drawings. More exciting things are ahead, I just hope her envision and inspiration can be conveyed through my direction, assumptions and lessons that she so diligently 'taught' me.