week 7: carpeting removal/architect meeting

Sorry, I missed a week, but let me catch you up now. Max pulled the carpeting/tack strips and I don't know what else. (Can you tell I took the weekend off?) We need to remove the linoleum in the kitchen and demo the tile in the masterbath. I think we're going to try out stained concrete while
the floors are bare. The most exciting progress we made was with the architectural drawings! Max did the initial meeting last week and yesterday we went together to see the first draft composites. It was so exciting! I know it's still just paper diagrams, but their paper make it look "official". It was the first time I met the contractor (and the contractor-in-training) and I was pleased with Max's choice. We had a very productive meeting. The next draft will be ready next week. TIP: I hope I don't have to say this, but don't be afraid to tell the contractor what you want. You're paying alot of money for something you'll be living with for a long time. PICS: Top - In the hallway, facing coat closet; Bottom - Same coat closet to the left and what's left of the living room.

week 5: more demo

We finished demo-ing the kitchen (except for the bank of cabinets with the sink on it). We also removed a bank of cabinets from the nook and revealed more wallpaper! Ugh! But this stuff hardly had any glue left so it peeled off almost on it's own. We then started to take down a coat closet in the hall. (Don't worry - there were 2.) That was fun - until we saw that the main power line was coming into that wall. We ended up leaving up the framing, but we could still see how large the foyer is going to be. Next was the bedroom closet wall. The guest bedroom closet and the master bedroom closet are back-to-back. We took down the wall separating the 2 to make it into 1 huge master closet. We just scratched the surface of the whole remodel, but we can
see it starting to take shape. We're still pretty thrilled. Max will be meeting with the architect this week. No tip this week. Everything was pretty straight-forward, safety-first sort of thing. PICS: Top - Original narrow hallway; Bottom - Extra coat closet (almost) busted down to expand entry/hallway.

week 4: kitchen demo

We finished the removal of the popcorn ceiling in the Living Room, Dining Room and Entry. We really got the hang of it (after all this practice) but fortunately, we're done. We also started demo-ing the kitchen. The ceiling in the kitchen is 7' high, so we're going to have the contractors raise the ceiling.
We may want to reuse the cabinets in the garage, so we decided to take them out ourselves. It's true what they say about demolition - it's fun! We didn't actually "destroy" anything (well, not on purpose). TIP: Wear a respirator/mask before taking down draperies THAT WERE NEVER CLEANED IN THE 25 YEARS OF THEIR EXISTENCE. Proper ventilation would be good, too. The dust cloud was so thick, it looked like something was burning in the oven. PICS: Top - Original appliance wall; Bottom - Kitchen w/ one wall of cabs left.

week 3: popcorn ceiling removal

Removing the popcorn ceiling was so much easier than we thought. We finished the 2 bedrooms, the family room and the nook in one day. The cleanup was worse than the actual removal. TIP: Use a one gallon weed-bug sprayer filled with tap water and spray the ceiling sections at a time. Soak it pretty
good. Wait 2-3 minutes and then scrape. It should come off like, like... wet joint compound (duh). Max scraped the utility room ceiling dry during the week and he said it took him 2 hours. Getting the acoustic wet is definitely the key. The second day I sanded the ceilings smooth while Max
removed the intake vents for the obsolete swamp cooler and patched the ceilings. Max also completed the demo of the utlity room. It's now a clean slate for however he wants to configure it. PICS: 1 - Max removing popcorn in the family room; 2 & 3 - Varying stages of the utility room.