We've reached the tail end of week three of our remodel, and the weather has finally cooperated long enough for Nick to finish sheeting our roof!
On Thursday, the crew from Bean's Roofing came back and papered the roof, so when the rain returns, Nick and his subs will have a dry place to work.
Up next... Framing new interior walls and installing windows.
It has been a week since we started the demo work on our house, and man, it has come far! Here is a recap of what has happened since January 11th.
On Friday the 11th, I left for work, and Mike and his grandfather, Bob, started the demo. They removed a bank of cabinets from the east wall of the kitchen and started in on removal of drywall. The removal of the drywall (which should have been relatively quick and painless) turned into a tedious task. Most of the drywall in the house was very old, and instead of coming off in large pieces, it came off in tiny chunks. The fact that there were nails in it about every four inches (in some places less than that) did not make the process any easier.
On Saturday, we called in the reserves. My mom, Karla, and my dad, Rick, came out to help us. And boy, did they help us. By Saturday evening, Mike, Bob, Karla, Rick and I had the house stripped to bare studs, and we had filled our 40-yard bin from R&R Roll Off half way.
On Sunday, we finished up removing fixtures and any left-over drywall that was stuck to the studs. Then, we moved on to the part of the demo that we were dreading the most: the ceiling. The ceiling was insulated using blown-in insulation. My sister-in-law recommended that we wet the insulation down before removing the drywall on the ceiling to keep the dust down. It helped a lot, but the process was still not too fun.
Mike suited up in Tyvek coveralls, donned a respirator and goggles, and took a hose up into the attic. After giving the insulation a good spray down, we closed up the house, and left him to stomp the drywall from above. What a mess! When all was said and done, we were left with about eight inches of powdery-yuk all over the floor. A note to my readers: NEVER, EVER, use spray-in insulation if you think you will ever be renovating your home!
We spent the rest of the day (suited up in Tyvek and other protective gear) fishing chunks of drywall out of the powder, and using a snow shovel to fill garbage bags with the insulation. By the end of the day, what seemed to be a never-ending task was finally finished. And this time, the 40-yard bin was filled to the top.
Up next... Roofing
It's been a busy weekend, but I've finally got a moment to post some "before" photos and a little bit of background about our house. I decided to just post the outside views, and views of the main room of the house. I'll post the bedroom and bathrooms in separate blogs, so keep visiting.
Our house is roughly 950 square feet. It is divided into a living room/kitchen area, a small den/office, one bedroom (our future master suite!) and two bathrooms (one will eventually be connected to our bedroom and turned into a master).
The house was one of the first built on our block, and it was originally used as a military barrack. (In fact, during demo last weekend, we found some flatware in the attic that was engraved U.S.N. - U.S. Navy perhaps?) It was then purchased by ten families to use as a vacation home, and finally came into the hands of my husband's grandparents in the 1960's when they purchased it for $6500. They added a few walls to create the den, added the bedroom to the rear of the house, created a kitchen and renovated the baths. They used it as their vacation home and vacation rental until they built a new home right next door during the '80s.
The house was gifted to my husband last year, and we are very excited to give it a new life. We hope his grandparents like what we're going to do with the place!
With demolition day quickly approaching, Mike and I have made our best efforts to remove all of our worldly belongings from our home... to no avail.
Last weekend, a huge storm hit the Central Coast, so our moving efforts were cut short. And, to top it off, our yard sale was rained out. The result: several pieces of furniture and various other salable wares have been left scattered from room to room. At least during this storm, our hallway and bedroom didn't flood - well, didn't flood too much.
Our house looks like a squatter camp! At least the piles are organized though: Move to Storage, Yard Sale, and Move to Garage.
According to my AccuWeather.com Dashboard Widget, it should be clear this weekend. (Keep those fingers crossed!) Our new goal is to have everything out of the house Friday morning so that while I'm at work, Mike can go sledge-hammer-crazy on the drywall. And, hopefully, there will be a yard sale on Saturday.
After the house is empty, I will be posting the much anticipated "before" shots. Yippeee!!
