"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.