work!

So, so much has been done since the last time I posted! Demo is almost completely done. We are starting to work towards putting homestead back together again, and the anticipation is really building for Brandon and me. Sensing this, my dad, trooper of troopers, has been at the house in nearly every spare minute of his time. His best bud, Rich, has been there every step of the way. I can't express how thankful we are to have them helping us. There is no way we could ever have done all of this work alone. And boy, have we come a long ways!

Take the dining room for example. It shows much of the work that has done throughout the house.

Before with the lovely 70's wallpaper and paneling:

After taking off the paneling/wallpaper and seeing that there was wainscotting at some point in her past:

We removed the popcorn ceiling, which tested negative for asbestos, and revealed a relatively blemish free and smooth surface underneath... yay! Guess who removed the first patches:

The carpets were removed throughout the house:

Where there used to be a closet in the 'third bedroom' (and I use the term bedroom loosely... it is between the living room and the kitchen and will now be our dining room):

So... we braced the ceiling:

...and cut a 4ft opening from the living room into our now dining room!

view from the living room into the dining room:

This doorway is now framed in:

The brains:

Throughout the house, the progress has been immense! We have a new roof, new electrical, and our plumbers, the two old farts you see above (dad on right, Rich on the left), are thisclose to being done.

Here are some other shots from around the house.

Under the paneling, we uncovered not one, not two, but three layers of wallpaper hiding. FUN!

The forest of a driveway that invaded the driver's side door when opened:

Was trimmed back:

The entry way had it's paneling removed, under which we found that at some point it was the front porch, and the stucco was still covering the walls. We removed that stucco, as well as the closet behind the door:

All of the rooms have had ceiling fans removed and have been patched, sanded, washed with TSP and wiped down so that they no longer look like this:

In fact, we are almost ready for primer in the bedrooms, hallway, and living room. Our next big projects, after finishing the plumbing, are sheet-rocking throughout the house over the areas that are exposed, refinishing the floors, priming and painting the walls and wood work. And redoing the kitchen.

And as far as that goes... I am saving that for another day. But for now, suffice it to say that this is now where the original kitchen now resides.