Weekend #2 of Demolition

Neighbors across the street (our front walk)

Neighbors to the left (David and Erin!)
Neighbors to the right..to the very right is Will and Katie Middlecoff!)

Happy to be done for the day!

Okay, well I have to be honest, and this weekend I was pretty much nowhere to be found. I justified this in my head by thinking, and then saying to Matt that I was holding up another part of family duties....Christmas shopping. Although, I have to admit that shopping, even in Christmas crowds and crazy Memphis traffic, was much more fun than demolition. I further justified my absence by saying the crowds and traffic might have added to my productivity for the 2 hours of demolition that I DID put in the next day. 

Anyway, Matt did basically all of the demolition by himself this past weekend. He put at least 6 hours into the house on Saturday, and then Sunday, I took out a wall, or two, while he and David knocked out some others. It was a very productive weekend overall. I was impressed with how much is already done. I'd say we're 50% finished, now.

The last parts are pretty tedious, such as getting in between the window frames and lower moulding, and getting the tops of all of the walls. 

It's really amazing how hot you get knocking the walls down. I blame it on that crazy mask. I have to rip that thing off of my face and walk outside just to catch my breath. Matt and David haven't done that as far as I know, so I must be doing something wrong, or am really out of shape. 

Over Thanksgiving, we're hoping to finish up the demolition. We'll have an extra day off of work, so that should help us make some more progress.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for all of the hard work that is going into this house. It makes it even more special.

More Demolition and Clean Up

Sunday, we WERE able to get back over to the house, but it was definitely a lot slower. We were so worn out and tired from the day before, but we did get the house cleaned out so that we could move around easier. Thankfully, my dad and brother went back to the house Monday, and may make it over again another day this week. Our next goal is to get the exterior walls down, and also to get the tops of the walls down. With the high ceilings, it's tough to get all the way to the top. Matt had to create something to stand on using two ladders and a board (i think it has a formal name, but can't think of it), so that he could reach the top eaiser.
Anyway, this weekend we will begin again. We're really hoping to be done with demo after Thanksgiving weekend!
We'll have a day off of work to use that we wouldn't normally have, so that should help speed up the process some.

Demolition Day

All of the mess

Today, we started the demolition of our house. We bought the house back at the end of August, and it has taken us a while to get everything together and talk with different people about how to go about this big project. Luckily, Matt's sister is an interior designer and was able to draw us some plans to go by so that we weren't completely working from scratch! This house project has honestly been REALLY intimidating, and there were times I'd walk in, smell that weird old house smell, look at all the work that needed to be done in EVERY room, and start to wonder what in the world we got into...BUT, we've finally broken the work down into smaller pieces, and I'm very excited now! Anyway, we began today, and it was so nice to see some progress! I really had a great time even though my fingers are aching and it's hard to type because of holding a hammer or crow bar all day long. I have to say thanks to Carrie for coming over to help! That was so nice. Also, my dad, mom, brother, and Sammy Earl helped out a lot, too. At one point, I had to take cover because the guys (Matt, David, and my dad) went on what seemed like a rampage all over the same wall. It was down to the studs in no time.
My method was much less efficient and probably too careful. I'd take the hammer and knock the top layer of plaster stuff off down to the horizontal boards. Then, one by one, I'd take the boards down with the crow bar until all studs were exposed. The upstairs was SO much easier. My mom and I attacked it. The walls were some form of foam board. seriously. It was almost identical to the type of foam board you might use for a science project. We had most of that down pretty quickly, but still have some detail work to do around the moulding.
Overall, it was a very productive 7 hours of work! I'm so thankful for all of the help we had. There's noway we could have made that kind of progress with just me, Matt, and Larry.
Tomorrow, we may do some clean up, and a few more walls, but I have a feeling we'll be sore and it'll go a little slower. I will post the pictures once I can get back to my house to load them onto the computer.