Weeks 2, 3, & 4 – Demo, New Windows, A Trip To Destin And … Underwear

Weeks 2, 3, & 4 – More Demo, New Windows, A Trip To Destin And … Underwear?? We’re officially a month into the renovation. Recently I've learned that the demolition process takes waaayyyy longer than I anticipated. I should have expected this since we are replacing so much in the house but the time it takes to tear out a tiled bathroom was a unwelcomed surprise. In the past few weeks I've also spent a week on the beach in Destin with 34 family members - every one of us in the picture below stayed in one house! Back to the demo process….. Tearing out the kitchen was a piece of cake. I spent about 4 hours ripping out the cabinets, flooring, and pantry. The part that took the longest was disconnecting all of the electrical and plumbing. As I’ve stated inprevious posts, this place was a gem back in the day. There’s an intercom system that runs through the house and they even had a food processor built into the kitchen counter. If it wasn't for all of the fancy gadgets, I would have had the kitchen out in an hour or two. Here are a few pictures of the Kitchen demo process: My brother, Drew, has successfully prepped the hardwoods to be refinished. Carpet previously covered the hardwood so he had to go through and remove the tack strips and a slew of random staples. I’m sure he enjoyed every minute of that! After we ripped out the kitchen and flooring we turned our attention to the bathrooms. I was hopefully that each would take only a few hours and we would be finished in a day… I was sorely mistaking. Each bathroom had a ceramic tile shower and floor. Each also had a vanity with a stone top… heavy duty stuff. Taking out the tile has proved to be a difficult task. Not only is it difficult to break through the tile and cement behind it but the debris is heavy and messy. I had to make 10+ trips out to the dumpster just to get rid of the tile and cement from the first shower I demo’d. Not to mention that when you break up concrete it fills the air with dust that gets in your eyes and lungs. After the first hour I had to go get a mask and goggles. Unfortunately I was too late and ended up with an eye infection… you live and learn! Hopefully we’ll have all three bathrooms ripped out this week. Here’s a couple pictures of the progress: One major change since the last time I posted is the replacement of all the windows. We replaced over 20 windows and replaced the glass around the front door. It makes a huge difference: We also had all of the landscaping ripped out. Thanks to a few fellow Lancers - Ben Mercer, Antonio Nelson, and Jon Miller - for their hard work in the blistering heat Sunday. The amount of overgrown landscaping at this house was just ridiculous. Ben, Antonio, and Jon did a great job ripping everything out and cleaning the place up. We haven't planted new landscaping yet but the house already looks totally different than it did a few weeks ago. BEFORE AFTER Another Lancer, Brad Maisch with BLB Lawncare, has kept the grass cut and the weeds in check. The title to this post mentions underwear… “Why?” you may ask. Well, as Drew and I were removing the vanities in the bathrooms we found a pair of underwear in each of the upstairs bathrooms. Somehow the previous owners managed to get two pairs of skivvies lodged underneath the vanities. A weird hiding place if you ask me! Did you notice the money envelope next to the pair of tighty whities? I saw that and thought the previous owner may have left us a present... unfortunately it was just a tighty-whitey-covered empty envelope. Aside from the demo, landscaping, and windows, what else is going on? => We had the Septic system inspected. This could have been a huge expense if it needed to be replaced. Luckily it’s in great shape and only needs to be cleaned. => The HVAC works like a charm! Another potential big replacement cost avoided. We are having it cleaned up and tuned but other than that it’s in great working condition. => I’ll be picking out the kitchen counters and kichen granite in the next week or two. The cabinets and granite are going to be a YUGE (Donald Trump voice) improvement over what was previously installed. I hope you’re enjoying following along. The process has taken longer than expected (I was warned of this) but we’re learning as we go. Hopefully the next house will get off to a faster start! I’ll check back in with more pictures in a week or two! Anthony
6/28/16