Those far wiser than me have told me a few times that time speeds up as you get older...I'm firm in the fact that I'm not "older" at all, and I'm happy in my youthful 20s, but I do seem to be on the treadmill speeding through life. One day seems to blend into another so quickly that I haven't sat down to really write up what is keeping me so busy!
Well, Summer is here in full force. Last week Boise saw 9 days in a row of temps over 100*. This tied a previous record. It was brutal! Now, that's all fine and well right? Yes, but it's especially news when you don't have air conditioning. We survived. Barely some days. We had some great people from church invite us over for dinner (which happens to be the peak heat of the day), we hang out at the library, we went swimming, we survived.
It's not at all our first summer without A/C - but I believe this year is different because we are missing a lot of walls and insulation currently! I know many of you have been following our progress on Facebook but for our extended family who receive this blog only by email as our family updates - here's an awesome glimpse into our demolition!
Well, Summer is here in full force. Last week Boise saw 9 days in a row of temps over 100*. This tied a previous record. It was brutal! Now, that's all fine and well right? Yes, but it's especially news when you don't have air conditioning. We survived. Barely some days. We had some great people from church invite us over for dinner (which happens to be the peak heat of the day), we hang out at the library, we went swimming, we survived.
It's not at all our first summer without A/C - but I believe this year is different because we are missing a lot of walls and insulation currently! I know many of you have been following our progress on Facebook but for our extended family who receive this blog only by email as our family updates - here's an awesome glimpse into our demolition!
My crazy contractor husband has drilled this statement into my brain - You measure from the top down and build from the bottom up. Alrighty then! So, after this crazy guy measured, this is us making a mess of our basement. Currently, there are 3 posts in the middle of my family room in the basement. These are serving as temporary supports as we work on the upstairs for permanent structural support.
The kids have been very involved in "breaking the house". It's amazing to look at this photo taken in June and know that this wall no longer exists in my home AT ALL!
The kids have been very involved in "breaking the house". It's amazing to look at this photo taken in June and know that this wall no longer exists in my home AT ALL!
Before it came out though.... a whole lot of mess was made. Our best friends came to join us in breaking the house too!
Progress.....
So, we kind of thought we would stop here. It was cleaned up and we could at least walk around. But hey... why stop there? We knew these walls weren't staying, might as well completely open it up now and use temporary supports.
And .... if that wall mostly disappeared... why not most of the other one...
I'll stop here and say that this is a HUGE THANK YOU to my awesome hubby, Damon. This remodel is all sorts of complex. Our 70 year old house had a huge structural deficiency. Scary. I'm so grateful for his expert opinion and hands on get-this-shit-right-the-first-time ethics. I am grateful that when I begin to feel like this project is too hard, too involved, too stressful - he pulls out his big ass brain and says "look, here's the beam calculations, here's exactly what I am going to do". He really has had enormous amounts of patience as I've stressed a bit.
This next photo you can see there is still much to be done but we're able to see how amazing it's going to be. The kids are sitting at the table, I can see them from where I took a picture in the kitchen. I can see my living room from my kitchen. This is nothing short of AMAZING!!!!!!!
The wall the fridge is on will be taken out, 100% of the kitchen is leaving (saving only the fridge, all new appliances,cabinets, everything).... But I love it so far. No longer is there a bedroom in between my kitchen and my living room folks!!
And the view from the living room looking toward the kitchen ...
We have a LOT of work to do. It's peak busy season for Damon at work so we're taking a rest at this point for a couple months. Before winter 3 very important beams for the structural integrity will need to be permanently placed. Then we'll rip out the rest of the kitchen (yep, I'm going kitchen-free for a year or three...)
We've picked out our cabinets, our tile counters (originally the plan for custom concrete cabinets but budget won this war!), we've picked out our appliances. We have blue prints that have evolved and changed, re-printed, and I'm sure more changes will continue as we explore ripping out the entire HVAC system, redoing all the electric system because 70 years ago this house wasn't wired for the load we place on it now with electronics....
Oh oh oh.... I am SO FREAKING HAPPY TO REMODEL OUR HOME!!!!!
Consider this an open invitation, want to see it? The back door is always open folks <3
We've picked out our cabinets, our tile counters (originally the plan for custom concrete cabinets but budget won this war!), we've picked out our appliances. We have blue prints that have evolved and changed, re-printed, and I'm sure more changes will continue as we explore ripping out the entire HVAC system, redoing all the electric system because 70 years ago this house wasn't wired for the load we place on it now with electronics....
Oh oh oh.... I am SO FREAKING HAPPY TO REMODEL OUR HOME!!!!!
Consider this an open invitation, want to see it? The back door is always open folks <3
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