Demolition

Once we committed to the cost of construction, we were forced to take the first step towards it - demolition.  Now, tearing apart your house on any day is disconcerting but thousands of square feet of demolition was overwhelming - both physically and emotionally. 

One of our goals was to preserve as much of the existing materials as possible.  So, we set about removing doors, trim and baseboard piece by piece carefully pulling each nail from it and then wrapping each opening and room in bundles for easy replacement later.  We also saved every light fixture, switch plate, grille, fan, etc, boxing and labeling it with the new location for reinstall. 

We spent hours pulling up miles of carpet, carpet tack strip (ouch!) and pad. 

We carefully rolled each section for pick-up by the recycler.  Our goal was to have the least amount of true waste as possible.  It was a painstaking process and took us 4 full weekends of long days, sore muscles, tender fingers and overall exhaustion. 

But, finally, we finished and were ready for the construction to begin!