Almost There....

It has been a crazy week here. So much has been done! This post will be full of pictures for a few reasons.

1) We worked for two days and had some extra help, so we really made a lot of progress on the house!

2) I am in an Oxycodone fueled haze due to wisdom teeth removal on Monday morning. Words aren't working so well :)

We finally started getting rid of the two chimneys upstairs. Luckily neither of the chimneys went through the ceiling, so we won't have to do any roof repairs. Dan would chip the bricks out of the chimney and pile them on the porch roof, where I split my time tossing them off the roof and putting the ones on the ground into the golf cart and hauling them to the barn. 

 Once the chimney was out of the nondescript bedroom, the last thing to do was to clean out the walls and shop-vac whatever was left. I took a broom to the walls to brush out any remaining insulation, dug out a few piles of plaster between the floorboards and the walls, and it was a wrap!

The Blue Room was finished in a similar fashion. Brushed out the walls, cleaned the mess off the floors, and officially closed the room. 

Our friend Bryan dropped by Saturday afternoon to lend a hand with some of the destruction. He and Daniel worked to finish cleaning the Master Bedroom. 

I was so excited about finally finishing the destruction upstairs that I may have gone just a little overboard. The bricks I had been tossing out of the window had left some pieces and dust on the porch roof. Dan caught me vacuuming the roof *grins sheepishly*

We came back Saturday night to put in a few more hours before the sun went down. I missed a shot of the plaster removal in the library, but Bryan and Daniel really made short work of the plaster and the clean up! Mom and I were able to start taking down the lath and insulation. 

Daniel and Bryan began taking down the plaster in the living room AKA the room of death. The walls were a nightmare to get down. Two inches of plaster over a layer of drywall. Full arm blows were needed just to make a dent. 

We had two very exhausted guys on our hands after their attempts at tearing apart the living room. Too tired to even crack peanuts!

Sunday afternoon was going to be spent celebrating Mothers's Day, but Dad wanted to get rid of the rest of the plaster in the house. Mom was very patient and obliging (after promises of red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting next week!), so we attacked the living room and dining room. Literally attacked. My brother in law Aaron went all firefighter on our dining room walls.

Dad took care of the incredibly useless closet in the dining room. This house contained two closets that were one foot in width, one in the Blue Room and one in the dining room. You couldn't hang anything or fit boxes in them. Closets 'o' uselessness indeed!

 Aaaand we uncovered another fireplace. As you can tell we already started taking it apart. Once this is down, we are going to put a big picture window in it's place. 

Made more progress on the living room too! 

We filled a second dumpster with the fruit of our labours and called it quits for the weekend.We made so much progress that I am confident all of the destruction will be completed by the end of next weekend!