Main Level Demo Party!

We definitely had quite a demo party on the main level this weekend!  Lots of tools, drywall, trim and tile were flying around! Frank and crew had started tearing out the smaller dividing walls before we headed up to NJ (prior to Christmas).  Here's how things looked post mini-wall demo:

This is a view from the current and future living room area at the front of our house, looking back.



Here's a look from the current kitchen, looking towards the front of the house.

Even with just these small walls down, we could already see how things might look when we open up the space... so exciting!!

This past weekend, we went wild on the space and tore down the rest of the drywall and trim in the current living room and dining room spaces.  The light flooded in once that wall was open and you can really start to see how it will look once we're done now...

Looking from the living room towards the side/back of the house.

The current dining room space, which will be part kitchen, part living room in the new layout.



Standing in the current dining room and looking towards the front of the house and living room space.

We still have to move wiring and the central vac in that wall above, so for now the studs will stay until we can take care of those things. 

Since we were feeling ambitious, we also started some demo on the kitchen.  For now, we're leaving that one wall of drywall between the kitchen and dining room.  We're trying to keep dust away from the refridgerator until we have it moved/sold.  So, we moved onto taking down cabinets, countertops and removing tile floor. 

Frank loved it!



This is the wall between the current kitchen and dining room... we ripped out the cabinets, countertop and cook top from here... the wall is next!

 The tile in the kitchen had lots of mud and adhesive underneath, but luckily it wasn't too bad to take out.  We got 1/2 of it out in about an hour. 

Chipping away!



1/2 the tile is out! 

 So that's where things stand after our weekend demo party!  Lots of progress for a few hours of work.  We'll be getting a dumpster soon so we can start to unload all of the resulting trash (hopefully today if they're open).  Next up, we'll continue in the kitchen and then start on the hardwood floor and hallway tile removal.  More photos to come as things progress!  Oh, one last thing... if you have any pent up anger or just feel like getting some extra exercise, all are welcome to come and help demo!!

The Bat Cave... I mean, Man Cave

Demo at the Prihoda residence has begun!  Right before heading up to NJ for Christmas, we started tearing down walls. Our demo started downstairs, which allowed us to do a few last things that would make the lower level fully liveable for a few months while we totally renovated the upper/main level. 

We had to tackle the back two rooms first (lower level) so that we could also accomodate the new mudroom we're adding for our side entrance (where we enter from the garage upstairs). We'll need to add in some in-floor support, so tearing down the ceiling in the lower level rooms was the best way to do that at this point.

While tearing down the back two rooms, we discussed plans of what we wanted to do with the space. When we first finish this newly expanded room, we're going to move in and make it our (2nd) temporary master bedroom.  There's also a bathroom attached, and we're planning to hopefully tackle at the same time.  This way, we'll have a nice clean suite to escape to from all the work that will be underway upstairs. 

Once the upstairs renovations are finished and we move into our real master bedroom, we're planning to make that back room downstairs a "man cave" for the man of the house -- Tyson! Haha, no I'm just kidding.  It will be Frank's man cave of course!  We have decided exactly what will go in there furniture wise just yet, but we'll defintely include a TV and possibly a pull-out couch for extra guests (in additional to a traditional guest room).

It's exciting to see progress in the renovation! Things are really coming along... here are some photos from the demo in the back two rooms (so far)...

Lots of drywall coming down in there!

Drywall aftermath.

More progress! We made it down to the cinderblock and cleaned up that big mess...

Ceiling is out now too... just about done with demo in here.

Once we take up the carpet we'll be just about finished with demo in here.  Then we'll move onto rewiring, replacing the window (to a more energy efficient one), replacing the flooring, dry locking the cinder, adding back walls, painting and decorating!  I'll keep you posted as this room evolves, but so far, so good in here!