Our Own 1812 Overture

When we purchased our house there was a buttload of carpet and paneling....not really our style. It's overwhelming to think of what you need/want to do. It helps to look back to see what you have done.

~Carpet torn up in all but 1 room - only 1 of those rooms still needs the floor re-done. It's not something I'm looking forward to undertaking due to space, dust, and cost.

~Carpet's been torn up on the stairs and repainted them.

~Kitchen cabinets have been redone.

~Living room and dining room has been painted.

~Stairs/hallway walls have been painted.

~"David's room" has been painted and our bedroom has been painted.

~Made a Willy Wonka door to access an attic from inside and "refinished" the attic.

~Outside of garage painted.

~Downstairs bedroom painted and added new light fixture.

~Siding/insulation applied.

~2 new doors installed along with 2 screen doors.

Even with all that's done, being homeowners, there's always more to do. You get to a point where your "can do" attitude and budget reaches it's limit. We took a year hiatus from us doing manual work (we had the siding done professionally). The downstairs bedroom that we call the "animal room" has been a work in progress for over a year. We had torn down the paneling and refinished the closet for a "litter box" room. But unfortunately the walls were FUBAR. (Google it). We had huge holes and cracks in the plaster. We researched patching and even skim coating. Ultimately it came down to it not able to be repaired and drywall it is. We'd love to hire a professional but the budget doesn't allow for that....not that it allows for any improvements at this time. Thankfully Alpa knows the basics of drywall.

So....we decided to drywall.....BUT the plaster and lathe has to come down first. We were trying to decided what to do yesterday. Originally we were going to drive out of town. But instead on a whim, we decided to take that down last night...you know, use the money we would've spent and put it towards our project. Real....smart....move.

First off....the dust. We knew it'd be dusty and prepared accordingly. Blocked off the door, wore hats, gloves, masks, and safety goggles. We even got it down to science climbing in and out of the window to reduce tracking in the house. But geez. I couldn't see David a couple feet from me. I couldn't help but think 9-11. Yeah, morbid I know, but it put it into perspective. Then, nails. Yeah, being smart I wore crocs. (sense the sarcasm?) Ultimately it was a good choice. They aren't ruined like David's shoes, and I was easily able to wash off my feet. But, those nails are wicked and puncture right through croc rubber. I had a few close calls and one a bit too close, but there was no blood and my tetanus shot is all up to date. (No worries Mama Jan!)

As always we've found that David and I work well as a team. We don't say much. Just a few expletives here and there when plaster came a tumblin' and decided to hit up in the head.

The demolition started out as fun. I kept thinking Extreme Home Makeover and, "Ha! I'm punching holes in a wall with a hammer. This is cool." That lasts able the first half hour. After that your forearms start to ache and you got the taste of plaster in your mouth, and can't see in front of you. Being the smart one, I took pain medication before heading into the war zone.

It was one of those things we didn't really think through....like where we'd put all the shit we'd pulled off the wall. We did some quick thinking and brainstorming. Alpa has a truck so we borrowed that and started throwing stuff out of the window into the bed of the truck. Unfortunately it's not real shovelable, meaning it all had to be tossed out by hand. Back to the drawing board again, we came up with filling buckets first, then throwing them out the window. It helped a bit. We got most everything cleaned up but the floor and called it a night.

BUT, that wasn't the end. Having been going in and out of the window we didn't know what we'd see on the other side of the door. Well, it wasn't horrible. But there was definitely a dusting in the rest of our downstairs. Excellent! So, here we are buck naked at 2am, dusting and mopping our house. Honestly, we were tired, but couldn't help but laugh. By 2:30am we were in bed.

Upon waking we looked at each other and said, "Do you feel that?" It's the weirdest feeling, but it still felt like we were covered from head to toe in dust. And my hair.....not only did I got to bed with wet hair, but also that funk. Whoa. Think Robert Pattinson. Unfortunately I can't make it look so hot.

I went downstairs to clean up the floor in the room. That was a pretty big job in itself. That's when Alpa came to replace me. The guys made their game plan for today. Unfortunately or fortunately I'm not in on the game plan. They've hit a few roadblocks but are moving right along. Additional 2X4's had to be placed along with insulation. But even before that we found additional lathe had to be removed. The plan is to get the drywall tomorrow and continue on. We're not sure when this will end and really I'm ok with that. I don't have an issue with this being an unfinished project. Remember it's looked like crap for over a year. My issue is the dust. If it's contained to that room, I'm cool with it.

So, we missed the fireworks, but needless to say we were making our own 1812 Overture explosions. Not as pretty, but that's ok. Won't be the first fireworks we've missed, or the last, I'm sure.

I'll leave you with some pictures mid-progress.