Accidental demolition

Day two of home ownership was fantastic. My mom, step dad, mother-in-law, best friend and her boyfriend all came over to see our house for the first time. They all really liked our new digs.

We met our neighbors on both sides of our house. **HUGE sigh of relief** They are so nice! And, one set of neighbors are our age! How cool 🙂

We did a ton of work on the house today. Dad and the hubby cleared out a ton of low branches and brush in the backyard. I installed a handle and dead bolt on the glass doors out to our deck. We hung up a curved shower rod in one of our bathrooms and a toilet paper holder in another. My family friend Glen, who is also an awesome contractor, came over to help us with several projects — he helped us install hardware on all 24 of our kitchen cabinets! They look SO much better. I’ll post pictures tomorrow or Monday, no worries.

We also got a new washing machine… well, sort of. My parents got a new washing machine and we happily took their old one. Free appliances — heck yes!

The best part of day two of home ownership was the accidental demolition that took place. Accidental demolition, you ask? Yes.

You see this wall? And this ugly, weird entry into our fourth bedroom?

And see this nasty paneling running alongside our pretty, brick fireplace?

Well, neither of those things exist anymore!

The hubby and I have been planning from the start to open up our family room and fourth bedroom to make one huge living space. But it never crossed our minds to do it on day two. But, today we were standing in front of the lovely panel doorway explaining to Robin (my mother-in-law) what we envisioned for the room, adding that our design was dependent on whether the two poles at the front of the doorway were supporting posts. I asked Glen if there was a way to tell with, to which he answered that we’d have to remove part of the wall.

“OK, just do it.” “Really?” “Yeah! Let’s find out now!”

And with that, a chain reaction of demolition occurred. First, the posts — they are load bearing (bummer). Then, the paneling. Then the drywall. Then the whole entry into the fourth bedroom was gone. Next came the entire wall next to the fireplace, followed shortly after by the closet in the bedroom.

In 3 hours, Brian, Glen, Robin and I totally demolished our family room/fourth bedroom into one incredible space. Best of all, we did it with one hammer, a jig saw and a pry bar. And, no one got hurt! Amazing!

It looks great (well, minus the pile of debris we left in the wake of our demolition and the whole unfinished room thing…). It is going to be great. And I’m glad we started now because the sooner we begin, the sooner it is finished!

I’ll have to add more photos tomorrow to show you all how different the room looks. By the time we were finished, it was dark out so I couldn’t take any photos. Stay tuned!