Destruction In Socks!

A repaired Dining Room ceiling

A gracious crew worked last Saturday in their tube socks - thank you. It's a new rule of the house - please be respectful of the VERY expensive refinished floors and take your shoes off at the door, even to tear our drywall. I'll tell you that the nails and screws get picked up pretty quickly ;-) Actually, it was some minor work and we'll get to that.

First a huge thank you to Shana, Kirby, Ron, Lola and Ryan for giving up your Saturday to help me. I still sometimes shudder at the thought of people giving up one of their most prized possessions - their time - to help me get into this house. I know that without your generosity I would be completely lost, frustrated and most likely homeless.

Anyway this weekend we tore out a bit of drywall that I damaged during the removal of the 2nd floor bathroom walls. When there are 1"-thick concrete walls to be removed, that's a job for nothing less than a sledge hammer and that of course leads to 1/2" drywall on the other side being damaged. I think I did a pretty decent job in not completely destroying the drywall, but nonetheless it still needed to be repaired - and by that I mean removed and replaced. So maybe I didn't do as great a job as I think - at least I had fun swinging the sledgehammer after many months of not being able to break stuff. Ron and Kirby delicately cut and removed drywall from the hallway wall and then went into the basement to do the same so the HVAC guys can redo some of their work so I have sufficient heat on the 1st floor and basement.
Ron CAREFULLY moves the switch wires/Kirby advises

Kirby removes small pieces/The finished work

Still needs a floor, some walls, a ceiling.../But electrical works!


So while Kirby and Ron were creating dust, the rest of the group was stripping paint (Lola), moving around a lot of old stuff to make room for more stuff (and maybe a truck) in the garage. Lola had the dubious job of breathing fumes of paint stripper trying to prepare the door jams going into the basement so they can be painted. Ryan and myself moved things around in the garage, threw away lots of unnecessary (until I need it a month from now) lumber and misc building materials. We moved things from the center of the garage floor to better wall spaces so that hopefully I can actually park in my own garage. It's a dream I have to one day park in my own garage, but it's one I think can be possible in say eight months...I hope I'm kidding. we also threw away all of the boxes and such from the kitchen appliances that were installed in preparation for this week's photo shoot! It's finally here folks - the kitchen will be complete by the end of the week! I hope to take a few photos of the madness so you can see what goes into making something that looks ordinary into something that inspires millions of people to better their own home. I still can't believe that this house will touch so many people's lives and hopefully inspire them to better their own living spaces. Never in a million years did I ever think that anything of mine would ever do that. The cool part is what what I mostly did no one can ever see - the planning, the plumbing, the floors - things that make it all work and someone else made it inspiring. I think I like that idea, being behind the scenes but still an integral part of a greater good. I think that could be a whole separate blog entry that maybe I'll touch on sometime later.
Lola gets into the details/Removing paint is never fun

Ryan reads the hazard label/As I use bare hands with the stripper



Moving on, Ron and I did something that has been needing to be completed since before Thanksgiving - we recycled a truckload of cardboard that was in the back of Babe the Truck. I really needed the truck a few times to haul somethings, but it was always full, so we drove her over to the recycling yard and gave away a ton (almost literally) of boxes. It felt good that some things of this house are reused, and when it's possible recycled.Off the top of my head I can think of the pop cans, (duh) all of the cardboard that protected the floors during the entire destruction phase, I have given away the old steam registers, the old tub from the other Drake area house, the wood flooring was all repaired by salvaged wood, the entire first floor woodwork is original, it just goes on and on. It's good to not just use all new, although I have definitely put a lot of new into the house I'm trying to keep the old too.

Shana helped clean, move things in the garage and wathed EllieBird in her room. I thought I'd share some of the photos from their play date. she's growing SO fast and I so badly look forward to living in this house with her and playing with her in the yard, in the basement, in her room. I look forward to making her dinner at night and watching cartoons with her on Saturdays. Your prayers and help have made all of that start to become a reality.
Little EllieBird smiles pretty/Then shoes off her shiny shoes

See, the sparkle!/Oh I'm sure they will grow way to fast...

A half smile/...and then a good story

C'mon Buddy, pose for the camera/I will not..

Okay, here's stately/You happy? I'm done.


It was a great week and I'm excited for the photo shoot so that will be over with and we can finally have a home-cooked meal after 16 months of eating out.