Well, I thought we were passed the demolition stage, so you can imagine my surprise when I walked in last week and saw that almost all of the walls were down to studs. I wasn't exactly happy, but everyone we talked with said it would be better to start new than to cover the old. 

This is standing at the front door looking at the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

This is in our bedroom looking at the "creepy room".

On Friday, Barry finished building our kitchen! Success! All it needs now is sealed and painted, which I didn't think would take more than a day, but apparently it's not a slap-two-coats-on-and-call-it-good kind of thing. I guess I'll have to be patient.

On Saturday our first load of drywall came! 

I took this picture just so everyone could be in awe of how skilled my grandpa is with backing up a trailer. He got that where it is without anyone helping him. Crazy!

My friend's husband, Jared, came to help with hanging drywall. We were thankful he was there!

This is the first piece going into the kitchen.

Kitchen ceiling is almost finished ...

My dad stopped by and got in on the action.

The kitchen is all hung!

My mom came by on Saturday and provided us all with lunch because she is fantastic. (=

The guys hung a couple of sheets in our bedroom on Saturday too. I'm about to head over soon to see what Barry and his friend, Isaiah, are doing this morning. I'm hoping this part moves along quickly so we can get to the more "delicate" things that I am able to help with!

This past week I was made aware that there were quite a few people who read this blog and have no idea what the house looks like! Sorry!

I feel like we got a good chunk of things accomplished this weekend. On Saturday, we finished our Christmas shopping - yay! Friends Isaiah and Jimmy came to help out as well as my brother-in-law, Darren, and brother, Andrew. Yes, we had a crew. The house is almost completely insulated now! The only places we have yet to insulate are a few spots where wiring still needs to be taken care of.

  

  

   

This is our room ...

… part of the living room ...

… kitchen … 

Andrew installed our recessed lighting in the kitchen. 

And we finished the night off with a Santa Claus Christmas parade!

We also spent some time at Home Depot and Lowes choosing lighting fixtures. We got some exterior motion-sensored lights and a ceiling fan/light for our bedroom. I was so excited to find this light for our dining room for way less than the asking price of $220!

Next on the agenda is drywalling. If you are reading this or know someone that really has an itch to install drywall, we can scratch that itch for you. Come on over! (=

Thursday night my brother came over to continue work on the electrical in the house.

My dad also came over and started insulating the living room.

On Barry's Friday off, he and his coworker continued work on our kitchen!

This morning we are heading to the Factory Ministries benefit breakfast and possibly to finish up Christmas shopping.

Hug your kids today!

Tonight my husband and one of his co-workers started building our kitchen! Exciting stuff, I must say. He works for Christiana Cabinetry, in case any of you are looking to update your kitchen. They don't think it will take too long to build, which sounds great to me!

                                                                                       

Barry told me, "Somewhere in there is a kitchen." I can totally see it. Can't you?

We also got our insulation tonight. I have a feeling I will be very itchy by the time Saturday night rolls around. Anyone care to join? (=

I figured I should also put a plug in for my Etsy shop. I don't have a ton of time to add things, but I actually sold 3 signs within this past week! It must be Christmastime or something … Barry took my newest two signs to the shop today and had them professionally clear coated for me, and maybe I'm biased, but they look pretty awesome.

Since we've last talked ...

… some momentous things have occurred. We finished the last of the demolition (we think)! 

Andrew (my brother) works for Spring Garden Electric and has begun electrical work in the house. Since the vast majority of the house is knob and tube, he has quite a task! The inspector told us the electrical was mostly all updated in the house, which obviously isn't true. Andrew did all of the wiring in the kitchen, and put boxes everywhere else in the house where we want outlets. There's a perk of redoing the walls, right? 

While running wires through the ceiling, he found this lovely little fellow. I honestly don't mind them much, as long as they stay behind the insulation in the attic and don't come out in the open. We'll just have to find the hole and take away their "hang out" spot. Sorry, bats!

 Our friends, Jimmy and Jonny came over this weekend to help us with some things. They put down the sub-flooring in the kitchen, which means we are definitely on to the rebuilding process! Yay! Andrew continued work on the wiring, Barry gathered up all of the trim that we are getting rid of and took it to be burned, and I washed my car. There's another plus to owning a house! (= 

Jonny cutting things to size.

 Jimmy being handy with the nail gun.

 The last piece of sub-flooring going in!

I realized this weekend that even though things are more involved than we originally planned, there are quite a few things to be thankful for. If it weren't for our family and friends, we would be far behind where we currently are. We have yet to spend a day at the house where we are the only ones there - there is always someone there to help. You really do find out who your friends are when it comes to the point where you could use the help! Another thing I'm thankful for is that the weather isn't typical December weather. Thank goodness for warmer days where we don't have to turn on the heat in the house to work and that it isn't bitterly cold when we need to be outside. 

Now I have this week's dinners prepped for the crockpot and freezing in the freezer, and it's time to bring on week number two!

Tearing it up

Well, you've seen the before pictures. This is the house in various stages over the past five days. I'd say we've done some serious damage in a short amount of time! Things really do get worse before they get better. I keep telling myself all of this work will be so worth it in the end. Tonight was more trim-yanking, nail-pulling, and debris-cleaning. I saw some more of the hardwood under the carpet in the bedrooms and can't get enough of it! I can't wait to show you what it looks like once we take that nasty carpet off.

These first two pictures are of the kitchen being gutted.

This load from the kitchen was taken to my brother-in-law's to burn. 

Two of my brother's friends killing our bedroom walls. I can't say how much I appreciated the work they put in yesterday!

 My brother, Andrew, checking outlets.

Barry taking the trim off the walls. It's some pretty old stuff that adds a lot of character, so he was trying really hard not to ruin it. There were only a few pieces he had to lay to rest.

 Window weights, anyone?

                                 

Our bedroom after the exterior walls had been removed.

Our clean up crew for tonight! (=

Before Pictures

This is our lovely kitchen from 1927. Look at all of that cabinet space!

 Bathroom … yes, that is a window in the shower.

 This will be our bedroom.

 Ahh! Hardwood!

 The creepy room. No lie, this is the before picture. There were phone numbers on the walls. We decided not to call - just in case.

 Our living room. Probably my favorite room.

 The arch leads to the dining room, which I didn't take a before picture of.