The walls are coming down

I came home from work tonight and the contractor had removed ALL the tile from the kitchen & Ron had already removed ALL of the drywall from 2 walls + ALL of the 2x4s in 1 of the 2 walls. WOW. The house already looks so open. I wish someone would buy our old fridge & dining table so we could get it out of the living room and get a better view of what things will look like.

At this point we are way ahead of schedule which means we can actually have some fun over the long weekend. Yeah! I can't wait to get things opened up and move from the prep & demo stage to construction. I can't wait to update my project plan. Ah how I love to see the % complete get higher and higher.

Here is our current progress, i'm so impressed by ourselves & can't believe we are still living in the house despite the holes we now have in the ceiling around this stupid dropped ceiling. Thank GOD we are under 100 degree temps for a few days. No amount of plastic will keep that heat out.

Contractor Day 1

Today was the 1st day that Steve, our contractor, was here working on the remodel. I have no proof that he was here other than my allergic reaction to all of the dust that was stirred up in the attic. Day 1 was simply prep for wall removal. He and his team moved the insulation above the dropped ceiling & braced the trusses to make 100% sure we don't need a header running across the span of the new open room.

Tomorrow they will come back to remove the tile from the kitchen and then it will be Ron and my turn for more work. We have until Monday July 6th to finish removing the dropped ceiling, room dividing walls & a little more drywall in the closet. Somehow we are ahead of schedule.

That's pretty much it to report from our big remodel. More to come soon...

The cabinets are out!

For the last two days Ron and I have been removing our old, not so beloved kitchen cabinets. We are so happy that they will be leaving the house tomorrow. I love craig's list and love that I never have to see those cabinets again. So far the hardest part of the kitchen demo was finding a way to get the pantry out from under the dropped ceiling. Our solution was to cut a big hole/door in the hall wall. The wall needed to go anyway, no time like the present. Thank GOD we have proper tools.

We are making significant progress with our demolition (as you can see) but the lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me. I feel myself getting snippy and I wish I had taken a nap today. Both dogs are freaked out wondering what the heck is going on with their house. We will survive and the end result is going to be great.

Our cabinets are on their way out...

I think our dated kitchen was on it's way out in the 90's but this week it is officially on the move, one piece at a time. We have a ridiculous number of interested parties from craig's list who are willing to take our cabinets off our hands. Really they will look fine with some new hardware and neutral color walls. I think they may even end up in a church which will work great.

The amount of joy that I felt swinging the sledge at the hideous counter tops was unreal. The tile came out so easily I wish we had done it years ago. Basic laminate counter tops would have been a million times better than the horrid purple tile with insanely wide grout lines. I swear I could never get it clean, nor could the house cleaner.

Here is our progress to date with the kitchen, our goal is to have the cabinets out and sold by Sunday. According to my project plan we are ahead of schedule. Now we can look forward to getting rid of the crap dropped ceiling.

The wood floors are out

The only real fight that Ron and I ever had was during the installation of these wood laminate floors. We decided to save some money when we replaced the carpet and thought for sure we could do this ourselves. It is a fact that we did it BUT it was not quick or simple. Taking the floors out was completely opposite. They came out in maybe 2 hours and that included the cleanup.

We loved these floors and hope to find them a good home. Here are some more photos of our progress.

Our coat closet is now a secret door

Our big renovation project has begun. (imagine the horror movie music here)

We have packed up most everything in the living room and a good amount from the kitchen. We have spices and misc pantry items in the guest bedroom and soon will have the floors & appliances out too. Yesterday & today we started taking out drywall & studs in the closets. What used to be two separate closets (1 coat & 1 bedroom) is now a 2nd door into the bedroom. Soon it will be a nice big closet in our smaller guest bedroom.

We still have more drywall to remove but we are being extra careful so we don't remove/damage more than necessary. We are trying to minimize the work for the contractors and therefore the hit to our budget. Here are some fun photos of our current progress. It's a huge mess in the making but we are still smiling & having fun. Come back to see more of our progress.

Blood & Bone Meal - it works

I am not sure I like the fact that this product works so well but I was starting to worry that my vegetable garden was going to result in 1 cucumber and a ton of herbs. Those are still great things but I have worked hard to produce tomatoes, corn, watermelon, peppers, blackberries PLUS herbs & cucumbers. I decided to try the blood & bone meal (non-bovine) that I had from the garage and it has made a huge difference. Turns out my soil needed more nitrogen & phosphorous.

I applied it in a ring several inches outside of the plant stems during Memorial Day weekend and now the plants seem to be 2x the size. I need to start propping up the tomatoes and thinning out some leaves to make sure they get enough air to produce some awesome fruit. The corn is even doing better. It still doesn't look like the Natural Gardener was here but it's a great start for us.