Mr. Smashy and the Killer Banana

The first thing I want to publicly address is an appreciation of all of the support James and I have received from our friends and family so far. I know buying a house isn't as life-changing an event as others, but it is amazing to see who comes out of the woodwork when you need something.

So, thank you to our real estate agent who encouraged us to dream, and sent us pictures of her own experiences to comfort us. Thank you to the friends who have stopped by this weekend and let us know it really "isn't that bad". Thank you to the contractors who tell us anything is possible (for the right price). Thanks to the volunteered contractor who showed up swinging, no questions asked.

And thank you to my Momma. A good parent doesn't question your life choices. A great parent doesn't question your spontaneous life choices, shows up with a sledgehammer, and takes you out for a beer after.

So we began the weekend with the continuation of the Contractor Parade. A friend had offered up her husband to come and take a look at the house. Being a general contractor, the plan was to have him come take a look and hear out all of our ideas, beginning to end, and let us know what was feasible. Since, what we had to this point, were just pieces of the puzzle from a plumber here, an electrician there, etc.

James walked him through the house, explaining the "grand plan", and after about half an hour he stated he would be there again the next day, at 9am to help get things started.

And he was.

James and I started the project Saturday night, by tearing out all of the cabinetry in the kitchen, the counter tops, and back splash. We stacked the cabinets outside and waited until the next day to get smashy smashy. We had no idea what we were in for.

When our volunteered contractor showed up he picked up a sledgehammer and promptly put a hole through the hall closet, for our plan to expand the kitchen. It began.

Little by little, he and James worked through the wall, tearing down the plaster as they went. They removed non-supporting beams and cleaned up as they went. In no time the hall closet had been turned into kitchen square footage. It is amazing to see what a little closet, when added to the right room, can do.

 

They also removed a soffit from the kitchen, so our new cabinets can extend to the ceiling. This will help a lot with storage in the small room. The plaster was heavy and dusty, and held together by metal mesh. They used sledgehammers to get most of it down, but required a grinder or a saw to remove the edges. We had also decided to open up a little more of the entrance to the dining room and the hallway to the living room, to give the house a more modern almost-open-concept design.

 

While they were working on the walls, we decided on the fly, to demolish part of the wall blocking the hallway from the butler's pantry. This header above the existing door was pointless, as it was not load-bearing, and we had planned to remove the door anyway. So they took the hallway all the way up to the ceiling and when they are finished it will be a smooth transition to the back of the house. This was important to us since we were planning to add a powder room to the existing butler's pantry, and we didn't like the look of the divided hallway. However, without my mom's design eye and our contractor's approval, we probably wouldn't have even thought of it.

While they were busy downstairs, my mom and I worked on removing the cedar planks from our soon-to-be walk-in shower, and she was able to take down the existing linen closet built-in, as well as the connecting closet-to-bathroom wall. I'll post pictures of this soon! There is still more work to be done in the bathroom, and we are optimistic that this will be finished this week, with our volunteered contractor's help.

Things are happening in the house faster than either of us had anticipated and it is incredible to see the transformation we were able to make in under one day! Yes - that's right. We did ALL of this in one Sunday with just 4 people, a sledgehammer and a giant crow-bar we call the 'Killer Banana" (after an HGTV episode of 'Renovation Realities").

Of course - I would also like to thank James: for at least acting like he knows what he is doing during all of this mess, being the only person I can imagine by my side, and letting me sledgehammer the kitchen cabinets.