Not for the faint of heart.

Demolition of half of your house is not for the faint of heart.  It is tough on your sanity, your comfort and your marriage, if I’m real with you.  Picking contractors (or picking a different contractor than the one your spouse prefers…), making decisions, deciding how much money to spend and where to cut corners in your home.  The home where you live and have to stare at said decisions for years to come.  It’s quite a bit to take in.  And then there is the deadline of visitors on Labor Day Weekend.  Everything must be done by then! Gah.

Scott was at a bachelor party last weekend.  Which meant I was alone with nothing but the studs of our house and no window treatments.  I met with contractors galore.  Electrician’s, dry wallers and flooring, oh my!

And then I was out of town for work the past few days.  Needless to say, this project has been a logistical spider web.  We’ve had to get ok with strangers coming into our home while we aren’t there.  And hoping that tape boxes on the wall properly communicate where we want the TV mounted.

When the electrician stopped by to get his check the other day, Prince greeted him like an old friend.  So there’s that.

But here’s the good news.  Demo is DONE.  As of 3:20 pm yesterday. And electrical is as done as it can be until the dry wall is up.  And the dry wall – yeah, its getting started on WEDNESDAY!  Like, in two days, people.

And living in a state of craziness continues to provide unforeseen marriage strengthening exercises.  Scott and I could win one of those marriage competition reality shows at this point.  For example: Fish your house key out of the debris-filled hole in the floor.  That is too narrow for either of your hands to fit in.  In under a minute so you don’t miss your train.  If you fail, your contractor can’t get into the house to do his work and then you will be behind schedule.  GO!   (We totally rocked that challenge – thank you, salad fork!)

Demo Demo Demo

Much to my surprise, we started demolishing our house this Saturday.  No, it was not the plan when we woke up Saturday morning.  But now, it’s Tuesday and my house looks like this.We knew we wanted to have our walls redone.  We just couldn’t bring ourselves to paint (and live forever in) a room with walls that looked like this:

And this:

And lets not forget the ceilings.  Which are either popcorn or the below.

Lovely, no?  NO.

So while there was no structural issue, we knew that everything either had to come down, get skim coated (messy!), or have new drywall put right over the top.  Saturday morning we received a quote to have the drywall replaced in our living room, dining room, entry way, awkward extra entry way and hallway.  It was a fair quote, so we decided to go for it.  We went to Home Depot, bought a sledge hammer and a pry bar.  We didn’t like the idea of piling drywall on top of what we thought was plaster, so we were going to demo it all ourselves.  We felt better about taking everything down to the studs and starting fresh.

We discovered that the “plaster” was some sort of wall treatment on top of drywall.  Huh?  And under the “plaster?”  Three layers of wall paper.  Snowflakes (just what I want up year round).

Lace on lace.

And the sixties.

After Day One and Two we had the main room and entry way done.  And pieces and parts of other areas.

Main room before and after:

Main entry before and after:

After Day Three (aka yesterday evening for 2 hours) we have the rest of the hallways and most of the dining room done.

Tetanus anyone?  Seeing these all around makes me chant the date of my last tetanus shot in my head (July 2011, well within the 10 year limit).

The only major change to the layout includes closing the second archway in the entry.  There is no reason for that little arch below.

So now she is all framed up and ready to be a wall to my new mini-mudroom!Tonight should be the last day of demo.  Just need to finish up the dining room!  And then we’ll have an electrician come to run wiring for recessed lighting and to the TV mount before the dry wall is put up!  Giddy doesn’t even begin to cover it.

 

Going Out With a Bang

Last day of the Fitzgerald visit posts!  There were just too many photos to cram it all into one, or even two. We ended our time together with dinner out at Scott and my new favorite place, Eventide. We got Grammy out with her grandkids and great-grandkids which was such a special treat for everyone.   It was a beautiful night out on the marina. The cousins played from start to finish. It was fun watching the big kids take care of the little ones, mostly Owen.  Amazing outfit on little O, no? (Ok, yes, I did buy it for him.) By the time my kids roll around I’ll have so many great baby sitters! After dinner we went to the other side of the restaurant where there’s a bit of a Red Neck Jersey Shore Yacht Club situation. We danced, sang and played along with the band. We were sad Dan couldn’t be with us that weekend, but were glad Jess and Owen came. Love. A good picture of the Fitz’s! Hooray! Those are some good-looking siblings.And the outlaws.  🙂 The kids had a blast. I may have found a kindred spirit in Avery.  Sparkly, princess-loving and yes, stubborn at times.  We had a grand old time. Aunt Jess and I showed her how dance parties makes everything better.   I think it worked. 🙂There were fireworks to cap off the night and the kiddos got front row seats. Not to be too sappy or paint too rosy of a picture {because we are so far from perfect}…but I think it was a great end to a great weekend for the family.  As a group we tried new things, new places, and new activities in a place we already know and love.  We created some great memories and hopefully started a tradition or two.    Good job, babe. Year one of Fun at Uncle Scott and Aunt Rebecca’s accomplished!