"It's all gonna be worth it"

It's all or nothing with this demo these days. We keep debating taking down walls and ceilings...and after discovering mouse nests, and poorly done frame work, we just tear it down. So at this point I've decided what we're doing isn't so much remodeling as it is gutting this house. Although it's not completely done, it's getting closer to being finished.closer. Before this weekend, we had pulled out 12 tons, 4 truck loads of material out of the house. And Yes, every person who ever comes by the house goes *eyes wide open* - "wow, y'all have a lot of work cut out for you, wow this is gonna be expensive" but then most say "it's gonna be worth it in the end I'm sure" and well I'm running with that comment these days and ignoring the rest, mainly because well I'm fully aware of the other two, and at this stage of the game there isn't much we can do about it, but save money, work hard, and stay positive, so that's what I'm doing folks. 

This weekend was a good one. Focused on filling the truck up again, which we did successfully, and knocking down the remaining wall upstairs and the bathroom down stairs. Doodle and Chase got temporary beams put in the basement and poured portland cement for the beams to sit on. Got the floor exposed, thanks to help from Doodle Saturday, and the bathroom gutted. Actually it's no longer a bathroom at all actually. The floor was the hardest part I think, it was that nasty partial board that breaks in a million pieces and leaves the nails like mine fields across the floors. Found more mouse nests then I wanna think about, and one little guy fell from the ceiling and vacated out the door without chase even seeing him. We're obviously gonna rebuild the bathroom, but hopefully make it a little more spacious. This will probably be one of my favorite transformations in the house, besides the log walls of course. It's been a long weekend, but a productive one. I don't know if I could of predicted how much this project would change things, but it's been all for the good, I believe. Mentally and physically so far, I can't begin to list the lessons I've already learned. 

This is what used to be the hallway and then two rooms upstairs, now it's open, wide open. 

Some of the bathroom before and afters.

This below is a place were a log wall used to be, it was cut as you can see, but it's neat to see the notching exposed.  

This is the same shot, Saturday to Sunday. 

It was a beautiful weekend. The rain has made everything green and lush, and our trips out airport road to grab food, always consist of seeing a plane coming in it seems.

Ellie Mae worked hard today too, digging holes all day. 

Buckets of Fun

If I had a dollar for every bucket carried this weekend to the dump truck…well I’d have a lot of dollars. Well what a weekend it was. After last weekend not being as productive as we hoped for, getting so much accomplished this weekend feels extra good. It wouldn’t have been possible without the extra help we got this weekend either. My Aunt Kathy came up for the weekend, and my goodness we can’t even begin to thank her for her hard labor! It was just good to spend time together, and even through respirators have some good talks and laughs. She had a blast too, she says, so that makes it even better. This work isn’t anything to take lightly, or to dress nice for currently, and she busted walls down like a pro without any complaints! On top of having her Saturday and Sunday, Doodle and Dad helped pull up the false floor upstairs, and take up carpet, and haul wood around. It unbelievable how some extra hands make the process speed up by leaps and bounds, every time someone offers up their well-earned and needed free time it humbles Chase and I. I don’t feel anyone needs to be obligated to help, nor do we expect it. All of our loved ones work equally hard during the week, have chores on the weekend, and need to that time on their weekends to catch up and relax for another long week ahead. We took this endeavor on, and we knew that it was going to mean sacrificing things and our weekends, but we are the ones who decided it and will someday reap the benefits, so that’s why there’s no reason for others to give up their time to us. So like I said it just makes me so thankful and feel so blessed when we have people there. Chase and I will just find ourselves in awe on the rides home, talking about those getting dirty, giving us their time, feeding us, just all of it, it just makes us so aware of how truly blessed we are.

All that seriousness aside, we got so much demolition done this weekend! We have more left, but we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel…with demo…which is just the icing, maybe even just the sprinkles, on the top of the cake. Even still with so much ahead, I’m getting very excited about starting to be done with this filthy work. Although its one heck of a workout carrying buckets, pushing wheel barrels, tearing lath down, knocking walls down, digging chinking out, throwing rocks, etc. Also I’m about done with finding snake skins in walls, insulation, and ceilings. Chase finds it hilarious to poke fun at pretending ones about to fall on me, or is behind me.

So here are some before and now’s from this weekend, and general changes happening.

Even these two things, this dump truck, and this water jug, make me thankful for the wonderful people who rented or without meaning too brought them into this project.

Taking down walls.

Well this weekend wasn't as productive as normal, with a wedding Saturday and some packing, but chase still managed to tear down so much. He was a wall demoing monster today. 

This is two of the rooms upstairs, that will someday be one, master bedroom, with enough room for a bed in the middle! For the first time ever the bed won't be against the wall!!! Which means no more crawling across chase and animals to get up! We had a wonderful supper brought from Gina, and she also brought me some cleanser for my dirty face, it needs it bad. Dad helped us clean up the messes we created today, doodle carried so many rocks from the back on the house to the truck and the dump truck hauled off another load. Hopefully next weekend we will have a few extra hands and really knock out a good bit of the rest. My aunt Kathy has offered to come in for the weekend and lend us a hand. It's going to be a great weekend! For now, sleep. 

(That lean says, please stop taking this photo so I can take the sledgehammer back to this wall)