Obviously this is going to be a very phot0-heavy post…because the best way to talk about demolition is to show it. Let’s start, shall we?
We started with salvaging as much of our existing deck as possible. There’s no point in throwing out perfectly good lumber, when you’re going to need it again in a few months.
Once the deck was gone you could really see a lot of the issues that we had with the foundation. We knew they were there, but it was a lot easier to ignore them when they weren’t visible.
There was absolutely nothing holding up the lowest back corner of the foundation. From the center of the house to this corner there was around an 18” difference.
All of the kitchen cabinets were pulled and salvaged. While we won’t be reusing them in the new kitchen, we will be using some of the wall cabinets in the laundry room and the base cabinets will be getting hacked for an entertainment center when we eventually/possibly finish the basement.
The new home of my stove and refrigerator. Since we packed almost ALL of the kitchen and attic into our 16’ trailer we really didn’t take over the rest of the house with stuff…which will make the cleaning process {anyone want to come and help with that?} a lot easier, and making moving back in when the house is closed up that much more comfortable.
This is the column that was in the middle of the house, at the end of the run of cabinets. Pretty much this thing is holding up the entire back end of the house….kind of crazy.
All of the cabinets are gone. 
Matt started chipping up the tile where the two structures met, so that we could chainsaw the house apart. I have to go back in and chip up all of the smaller patterned tile, because that will be in the mudroom/laundry room and will be getting new flooring.
The closet in our bathroom is gone. This is standing in the kitchen looking at where my desk used to be and the white hutch. Where the pipe is that is where our new mudroom door will open onto the driveway. Unfortunately, we did lose a closet in the bathroom, but it isn’t that big of a deal. We’re going to build something narrow to store essentials, and make better use of the space under our vanity.
The lovely old wallpaper we found. Old houses always seem to have a plethora of this, and admittedly I was kind of disappointed that we hadn’t found any. This was in the bathroom closet. I’m guessing early 1940s, and there was only 2 other layers beneath it…a silverish one and one with a heavier ivy pattern.
Standing in the breakfast nook looking into the bathroom.
At some point there was an extensive fire in our house; unfortunately, we haven’t been able to find much information about it. The fire damage was all the way into the kitchen ceiling.
Standing in the bathroom and looking toward the kitchen. This is the window that sat behind my desk.
Moving outside!All of the windows were removed from the kitchen. The original windows will be replacing the living room replacement windows, the mudroom door will be reused, and 1 of the windows from the back of the house will be going in the mudroom, if we have space for it.
Finally it was demolition day! I was down at the house around 7am, waiting for them to start the work. Several of my mom friends were with me, bright and earlier, for a homeschool field day. Unfortunately, all of the kidlets were bored and missed out on the actual demolition.
I was sure to get one last picture from my upstairs hall window, and a few more as the sun came up.
Just as the sun came up and the clouds rolled in they started, with removing the 4x4s that were part of the deck {so we can reuse them}.
Then they had to remove the stone slabs that were our “porch” area.
Then it started.
Looking out from my living room.
Being brave and looking out the upstairs hall window.
My kitchen floor: It was still all in one solid piece, despite everything falling in on it. They had a hard time smashing that up to fit it in the dumpster…the tiles wouldn’t crack.
By sundown it was all dug out and a huge pile of dirt was hiding my apple trees.
Kind of crazy to look at how the old foundation was built.
There is so much more light in my living room now, it’s incredible! I know that it won’t be quite like this once the addition is built, but it’s still so cool to see just how much view we’ll have.
Matt and Avie posing next to the 1 of 3 piles of dirt in our yard.
And just like that the destruction is done: In a little more than a week, we went from living there to having a pit in the ground. Now we move on with construction. We’re looking at about 2 weeks before the foundation is built and the structure can start going up.
If you really want to get a sneak preview of what’s going on in the White House, be sure to follow me on Instagram!
No comments:
Post a Comment