D-Day

i have been saving and hoping for a new kitchen for a long time in this old house.  this winter we thought long and hard about some options and i came up with some ideas for remodeling.  then i started thinking, why go to all this trouble?  let's just build a new house with tall ceilings (the only thing i like in the new houses)...and i have an issue with location.  i wish our house was down a lane or not on as busy of a road.  but, ben talked me out of it.  and i am happy he did.  it's true, i enjoy vintage much more than modern.  it's just so unique.  not like everyone else!  plus, we have plenty of room to work with and a nice yard and brick.  SO, after coming up with phase 1 of remodeling, we jumped right in!!!  ben plans to live here forever and never have to move.  but, partially moving we had to do, in order to do the remodel...

demolition began on february 19th.  i really, really wanted to do the kitchen but decided this crazy plan of mine was an opportunity cost for something better in the end (in a few more years, after lots more saving!) we demolished the whole west side of the basement, ripping out 2 bedrooms, 2 closets, a storage room -that we had paid to have shelves installed in a few years ago :( , and then the whole block of cabinets in the upstairs 'study' where the new stairs go down now.  this will allow us to cover the existing stairs in a few years and tear down all the walls from the kitchen out to the back door, giving us so many more options for a kitchen/dining remodel!  it gives us 2, big bedrooms downstairs and the stairs centrally located, not on the back of the house.

 so ben and 2 of our employees did the demo work.  grandpa mcintyre used a serious amount of wood and nails.  the nails alone we should have recycled and got some money from.  hey if 2 nails are needed, why not pound in 8 for good measure, right?!  of course, when you start tearing into an old house you run into surprises and we did have a few of those.  the diesel tank had to be moved in the furnace room and when it moved, it started leaking and leaked all the way up the stairs out to the dump trailer.  so, we had to buy a new one of those and i had all the mess to clean up.  then, the frost free water line that hasn't worked for eons was right where the new stairs go down.  next came excavation for the 2 window wells for egress windows.  the lawn took a beating and in the second hole, grandpa...may he rest in peace, had buried his old front steps in the exact spot of the window well.  nice! 

the kids have a had a blast 'helping'.  actually, they have been helping!  they hauled all the firewood out, sweep, dump trash, and have vacuumed.  in the meantime, i was hoping to be able to salvage the old cabinets we ripped out since they had never been painted and were the original birch finish, but alas, were very much secured to the floor and wall by grandpa.  after working on the demo for a couple of days, i decided to start researching.  why didn't i do this before you ask???  it's just typical me...behind the 8 ball sometimes.  but i kept thinking in the back of my head, what is the major plan here?  this is so much money that i don't want part of the house to be 90's, part 70's, part left in the 50's, part modern and cutting edge.  we need a common thread...a nice flow.  SO, i am slowly taking the house back to the 50's!!!  it was completed in 1957 and that is where i am headed with it.  not extreme, not over the top authentic, just touches of the 50's and common ground for all the ideas to tie together, with modern conveniences of course.  too bad i had ben take the birch doors from the basement to the dump!  in the end, 3 were saved and i am switching hardware with some from upstairs, but i had to go and scrounge around for 2 more doors from building supply thrift stores and hope they work.  we shall see!  i had all the kids running wild in these stores, luckily we weren't thrown out, and i was able to haul the doors on the way home from fill-the-temple. it was a little choatic, but hopefully worth it.  there is so much involved with just a remodel, i do not know how people build a huge house and not go crazy!  the builder, our bishop, will be back tomorrow.  wish us luck!