Saturday morning demolition

This past week has been a doozy.  The first week back to school from break is always hard, but it seemed to be a bit harder.  I thought it was because I am pregnant, and tired, and Brant was fighting a cold, and tired, but later discovered it was a trifecta...there was a full moon as well!

But we made it through, although Brant had a sick day on Friday as the crud finally got him.  A day of rest and he was raring to go Saturday morning.  Daddy had promised some renovation work, and his best helper was ready and raring to go.

Last week we made a trip to IKEA (quite possibly our favorite store EVER), to buy some supplies for the renovation. Basically, other than the tile, toilet and things like wiring, we bought it all there.  And so, we were ready to get started, after another trip to Lowe's of course).

I called home early last week to see what Daddy was doing and the cryptic reply was "working in the bathroom."  Excited, I didn't ask more, but waited to be surprised when we got home from school.  Thinking he was installing our transom window above the shower, I was totally surprised to see a new pocket door!  It was a HUGE space saver!

 

Well, the door wasn't actually in yet, but that's the frame for it. It'll slide in that area with the horizontal boards.  The door went in later that day. We had plans to reuse the original door, from the 1940's, but the cost to buy the hardware was $140  and a new door with the correct hardware was $25!

So this morning, after a jaunt to the barber shop, and another trip to Lowe's for needed supplies, the boys got working!

Yummy!  Yellowish gold linoleum that goes half-way up the walls in the kitchen and bath.  It was THE thing back in the day the house was built.  For us, it's just ugly!

Crowbar in hand, safety gear on...It's DEMO time!

Tearing out the beadboard (not original to the house, don't worry)

And tackling the drywall.  Fresh drywall is going to make a huge difference!

So in doing all this renovation on a house built in 1947 always turns up a few surprises, pleasant or not.  We've found old newspapers stuck in for insulation and been able to read them (it was the wedding section from the Greensboro Sunday paper).  This time, however, it was more irritating.

In tearing out the wall for the pocket door, Brantley had to move some wiring.  He decided that the one wire that really was out of whack and made no sense in it's placement was going to go. Knowing it was connected to an outlet behind the Hoosier in our kitchen and never used, it wouldn't present a problem.  So, it got disconnected.  We cleaned up for the night and went into the living room to relax.  I reached over to flip on the lamp beside the couch and it wouldn't work.  Brant checked the breaker box, power strip and finally, finding no solution, we decided that the goofy wiring in the bathroom must have somehow been connected to the one outlet as far from the other one that you could get!  So, thankfully the wall hasn't been closed up and things can be re-wired, but geez people!  You didn't have to make our renovation so interesting!

More demo tomorrow, toilet must be moved to get to the rest of the wall.  But don't worry, my boys have it well under control!  As long as there are no more surprises!