Move! That! Wall! Demolition Day 1

Demolition has begun! We arrived at the house bright and early on Tuesday to find that a crew of workers were already there going to town ripping things up and tearing things down.

Prepare to die.

He’s just as excited as I am about sending that wall to construction heaven.

Construction crews should charge a fee for people to come whack at walls with sledge hammers at the beginning of a demolition. Excellent stress reliever.

Ready to finally claim our open concept home!

That hammer was REALLY heavy. I need to lift more weights.

Shelby stepped up to the plate to have at it, using a more kid-sized tool, of course.

Please note Jasper – our more cautious child – in the background looking scared, letting Shelby go first while he observes.

Hi-YAH!!

After verifying that hitting a wall wouldn’t result in injury or death, Jasper grabbed the tool and took his own swing.

The only time he’ll ever be encouraged to damage a wall.

This is the view from the family room – isn’t it funny being able to see that little pocket door tucked into the wall?

The basement got some serious demo as well, with most of the flooring being taken up. The mirrored bar in the corner was removed later in the day.

This is the spare room in the basement with the carpet and pad removed. There is some suspected mold or past water damage in that back corner that will need to be investigated before the new flooring goes in.

We are having everything in the basement bathroom replaced except for the shower. The floor is proving to be a bit of a bugger once some ancient glued down linoleum was uncovered under the top layer of wood tile.

Back upstairs for another view at the opened wall. The support studs are still there until the new beam is installed and secured. The original location for the beam was going to be at the same height as that existing beam on the right side of this photo, but Matt realized that hanging it that low would block the view of the high windows in the family room when working in the kitchen. It was thankfully an easy change to have the beam hung higher up, making it flush with the kitchen ceiling.

Maneuvering the beam into the room before getting it into place.

And there she goes!

Well, that all escalated quickly.