my intentions were pure. to blog once a week about the renovation of my new house to be. and then bad shit happens. like, your dad dies. yep. that happened 4 days after my last post. i was really hoping he'd be able to follow along on the renovation documentation, but i guess it just won't be via blog subscription now. words will come regarding his life and death, but i really can't find any for right now, so i'm just going to stick to talking about the house, for the moment.
if ever there was a time to want to smash some walls, saw something down, or simply go ballistic on some caddywumpus architecture, now would be the time :)
i even got my daughter involved! never too early to addict my children to renovation ;)
bear with me as i post the demo in progress shots. as you can imagine, since i'm behind in posting, there's a bit of a time lapse! this is not hgtv, it really didn't all happen in just one episode ;)
let's start with the trash and work our way back a bit! throughout the few weeks of demo, there have been such volumes of trash, i thought we might actually be buying the dump, after all the fees we've paid!?
we recreated this scene about 5 more times!!! because of the way our driveway dives down into the backyard and that the house is on a busy 2 lane street, there was no place for a dumpster, so the construction crew has been hauling everything away on a trailer and in pickup trucks! I know the neighbors have been thrilled with the trash mounds! we're hoping to win them back with equal amounts of alcohol in the near future ;)
down in the apartment we started with the removal of the nasty-ass carpet (in a basement people!!!) only to discover what appeared to be asbestos tile! yay. how do i know this you ask?? because i've dealt with asbestos tile before and this looks just like it :( i called in the remediation team for an assessment and quote on removal. they were wonderful and speedy and know how to read...
we were going through the lower level so they could take samples of what was suspected to be asbestos, when we came across this sticker on the coverings around the water pipes in the basement. duh. we got a good laugh. no need for fancy sampling, the sticker says it all!!
$6500 later, all the asbestos has been removed and properly discarded. apparently, i will receive a letter from the epa in several weeks stating i have properly removed the asbestos. not sure there's anyone left in the epa to actually sign a letter, but i'm hoping so!
back upstairs, the plaster walls are coming down! This shot is from the dining room looking into the kitchen. most of the walls and ceilings are cracked and since plaster is such a pain to deal with, we're taking it all down. definitely not the most earth-friendly way to renovate, but it really is just a necessary evil...
above is the kitchen demo! this was one of the only spaces in the house that had been updated and while i still feel a bit guilty about taking out all those perfectly fine cabinets, i'm gonna feel a whole lot better when my gorgeous new kitchen is in place and we're all hanging out, cooking together, laughing, enjoying the best food ever made!! ahhhh :)
i recently was at the house for a site visit and a unknown woman was walking around inside with one of the carpenters. i immediately thought i was in trouble for something (yes, personal issue, calling therapist now...)!! turns out she's from a wonderful volunteer organization, more for atlanta! they are a non-profit charity that helps low income families and the homeless in the metro atlanta area with food, clothing, and shelter. and they take donations of things like cabinets!!! they even hauled them away for us! i am truly so glad the cabinets will be put to good use!! please go to their website to see if you might be able to help!
thanks to my construction guys, they were able to busta move on the rear security door, since i never could find the key for it! they also busted up the floor that was about 4" off level! again, for some reason, like with the oversized freezer in the basement, i was looking for dead bodies under the floor boards... there were none, btw.
on the left is the hall bath (the one that had the misaligned black dots on the floor). of course, those tiles turned out to be sitting on another layer of tiles over a thick bed of concrete!! you'll see pictures in another post of the sagging beams underneath the floor!
on the right is the kids bath and what will be our laundry closet. sooooo looking forward to the kids doing their own laundry :)
at this point, things are starting to get full on cray-cray. all the ceilings, except the kitchen, were plaster and cracked, so we knew they had to go, but it was pretty amazing to see everything so open! mr wonderful starting pressing to just make the entire main floor one continuous room. i hated to shoot him down, but no, that's not happening. some houses are better with separate rooms and this house is one of them. since the tv will be in the front living room and the kids bedrooms are in the back of the house (which isn't very far away), i'll be replacing the door to the main hallway to hopefully dampen the sounds of late night cheering come football and basketball season ;) i am replicating the tudor arch between the living room and dining room between the dining room and kitchen and the kitchen and main hall, so the flow, in general, will feel more open.
you can see more of a progression in the above pics. that's the guest bedroom/office on top, before the ceilings came down. and below is all the bracing we had to do to keep the roof from caving in. literally!! you can also see the start of the floor framing for the lovenest upstairs :)
the grand finale!! the upstairs will go from storage attic to master lovenest!! yay us! framing of the new floor joists has already begun and i can't wait to show you all the progress that has happened since i took these pictures!! stick around for more renovation fun! i think my dad would be proud so far :)
beijos,
beth