Destruction Days

Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Front bedroom chimney

Living Room looking into front bedroom

I am strong man...I hold up walls!!

After helping the twins and TLee move Nancie on Saturday, Kade and I took a quick trip to Lowe's. Got some sturdy gloves for me, a heavier hammer for wall demolition, some face masks, Gatorade, lumber, and a flag to put up for Memorial Day weekend. The weather wasn't too warm--about 80 degrees with a breeze which was nice. Here's the weekend breakdown:

Saturday:

• First thing we did was put the flag up on the porch!
• Sarina and Kris came out to visit, as did Aaron, Cindy and Aaron's dad, and Anthony and Nancie.
• We got the 1st room basically to its frame on the inside (we still had the ceiling to go and a little border around the top edges).
• We had two of the main walls on 2nd room gutted on the inside to about 6ft up, and we had the hallway gutted.
• Start time: 2:00 p.m. Quittin time: 9:30 p.m.
  

Sunday:

• Kade knocked out the ceilings in the 1st and 2nd bedrooms making himself look like a chimney sweep, lol!! The 12ft ceilings look amazing!!! 1st room almost complete.
• I knocked out the remaining 2nd bedroom walls and the hallway up to 6ft.
• Kade gave me the worst job on the planet (he said so himself)--removing staples from the floor in the 3rd bedroom. I pulled maybe 7 complete staples out on the first try. The rest ended up looking like little staple trees growing out of the floor.
• Some ceiling tiles are out of the kitchen and the tiles were shuffled to the porch. Kade took down the small set of cabinets in the kitchen and they are now in the backyard as our lawn decorations.
• We have the wheelbarrow pattern down to a science: I use one wheelbarrow for wood slats, the other for plaster rubble and debris. I load them up and Kade dumps them for me. Trust me, we'd still be working on the 1st room or I would be buried in the dumpster if I tried to dump a wheelbarrow full of plaster!!
• Shon, Laura and Miss Kendall stopped by to check out the house and brought delicious Sonic dinner for us! Kendall left with a few rocks for her rock collection.
• Start time: 9:30 a.m. Quittin time: 9:30 p.m. because I didn't have Memorial Day off...
  

Monday:

• Kade did a LOT of work at the house while I was at work!!
• He pulled most of the kitchen paneling off (revealing a wall with about 100 phone numbers on it--guess someone didn't believe in wasting trees.)
• He removed the remainder of the kitchen and laundry room ceiling tiles and he knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the laundry room.
• He worked on getting the tack strip off in the 3rd bedroom and some of the paneling.
• We went over to Aaron and Cindy's for a cookout about 4 p.m.--it was nice to celebrate a little on Memorial Day!!
• After the cookout we went to work cleaning the debris in the 1st bedroom, laundry room, and hallway. Kade moved insulation so we could have a pathway through the kitchen.
• Kade knocked out the top wall portion in the living room that leads to the front room--so we have our first wall that's completely gutted on both sides!!! Looks like we're having a weird barn raising or something.

Well, that's about it for the nice 3 day weekend! We're proud of everything we were able to accomplish working by ourselves and we didn't mind that we were covered in dirt, plaster dust, and soot cause we had fun!

And then there were two

I ordered a HUGE dumpster from Home Depot the other day-a 30 cubic yard one that holds 4 tons from a nice man named Ray. The dumpster was delievered yesterday sometime but it didn't exactly get "placed" correctly in the yard--I guess the delivery person didn't see Kade's frisbee cones strategically set up in the backyard. Ooopsies. But still we have a dumpster which is a very, very, good thing because the front bedroom now looks like a tornado hit it! It doesn't look like the nice pics I posted yesterday. While I was in the library last night, Kade pretty much gutted the front bedroom down to the studs. There's just a little bit left that needs to come down on the far wall but trust me, by 5 pm tonight, that won't be there either. He also uncovered the other "secret" door which again proved our theory that the original house had one main center hallway-most likely for cross breezes before air conditioning. So, 1 bedroom down, 2 to go!

Interesting tidbit: in Kade's destruction of the master bedroom mantel, he found 2 old pictures (probably from the 60's) and a huge blown up $2 bill. Of course, I'm saving them, because that's what I do.

In case you're counting, here's the breakdown: 2 pictures, a $2 bill, 2 wheelbarrows, 2 people demolishing 2 more bedrooms over a 2 day weekend. :o)

pics: Kade and I look like a HOT MESS after Saturday's destruction, a little baby blue jay in the yard, and our chimney finds

Charms, cont.

Here are more before pics.

Charms

I know the 3rd time is supposed to be a charm, but for closing purposes, the 2nd time was a charm because it went very well!!! We were FINALLY able to start work on the house. Kade and I went straight over to the house Monday night to change the locks and get some small projects started.

I found lots of charms cleaning up the yard--an old my little pony, lots of colored glass and stones, candles, ribbon, a toy car, marbles, flower petals, beer bottle caps, buttons, crayons...the random list keeps going. Kade pulled out the carpet in the master bedroom and the back bedroom and we started stripping paint from the first bedroom door, mantle, and baseboards. After kicking the back paneling, Kade and I discovered a secret doorway, giving proof to our theory that the house had one long hallway at one point. We also met a few of our neighbors, who by the way, are really nice!!! I'm glad they stopped by to say hello. Here are the "before" pictures you've been waiting for, because the demolition phase ones are coming fast!!

Countdown

After an extended vacation weekend in Richmond watching Ash graduate (yep, she's a dentist now!!) we were supposed to close at 10 a.m. this morning. Except there were some timing issues and now the anticipated closing time is 3 p.m. this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed that this afternoon goes splendidly! Just called to have power and high quality h2O set up--so as soon as we close work can begin! Here are some flower pics to keep you entertained until I can get more house pics up. The lilies are on the side of the house and the purple ones (wisteria, maybe?) are on the retaining wall out front. T minus one hour and 22 minutes to go!

Bargain Hunting

Went to my first auction early on Saturday morning. Our bid number was #92, handwritten on a yellow card. If we wanted to bid, we just held up the yellow card at the right time. Good thing Kade knew what the auctioneer was saying, because I had no clue. Walked away that afternoon with two vanity countertops (one granite, one marble) and enough Travertine tile to put in the kitchen and possibly mom's foyer. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Kade bought tow straps too. But still, we didn't fare too bad at checkout counter. So, in the tradition of hunting more bargains, we checked out Sunday's classified ads. 2 Wheelbarrows for $75??? SOLD! We drove to meet an 85 year old man named Tom to pick them up Sunday night.

Waiting Games

So I signed the loan papers last week at quite possibly the busiest bank in South Carolina for a Saturday. I read every single word on every single page (which annoyed Kade BEYOND belief) but that part is over!!! Yay!! Now we wait. On appraisal, on title, and on closing details. So we go to $1 beer night at the ballpark and we wait some more. But this time we wait in the food line, in the $1 beer line, in the food line, in the $1 beer line...ahhh life is good.