Demolition Progress

We're mostly demolished, both in terms of the house and in terms of our physical status. The Mr. is putting in yet another late night loading up a dumpster (we filled the 20 yard ridiculously fast, I expect the 30 yard will be full tonight, and we still haven't taken out any first floor carpets). He's taking some updated pictures for you all, but in the meantime here are a few pictures of the upstairs bathroom from mid afternoon on Saturday:

Down to the studs (laundry chute door has been removed since)

Charming. Historic! We found many pieces of concrete with newspaper attached to them. Most of the newspapers dated from 1947. 

One million razor blades. I have since been told by a classmate that old time medicine cabinets included a slot to 'dispose' of your razors. Pretty sure the 1970's cabinet we removed didn't include this, but who knows. Maybe they thought it was a gift they could leave for future renovators. 

Pathetic dumpster. It could have been completely filled before lunch. We seriously underestimated how overbuilt the basement was. 

Huge thanks go out to all of our volunteers this weekend! We were able to get pretty darn close to our goals for the weekend and would have been closer still if we'd had another dumpster. We are very grateful for the skilled and enthusiastic help with taking out the bathroom (Andrew, Laura and Katelin!) and ripping out the basement (Kyle, Mike, Terry, Bruce and Andrew!) Those are two different but equally awesome guys named Andrew, and my apologies if I've forgotten anyone. It was a pretty long day and we are thrilled that no one was injured. (Mostly. We got out with a few cuts and scrapes.)

We are very tired and I am personally relieved to have been 'clean' since Saturday night, although I managed this feat by hanging out with the massively tantrum-ing, possibly sick Kid. Saturday afternoon we were ready to pack it in and had collected him from an awesome day playing at the neighbor's house with their 5 and 7 year old kids (for which we are so grateful!) when some friends pulled up ready and eager to help. So we turned back around and went back to it, setting the Kid up with the iPhone and his Legos on the porch. The Mr. was surprised when the neighbor kindly returned him to us, as he had wandered back to their house to talk about Legos. Whoops. So we have been keeping a tighter rein on him. He clearly loves the new neighborhood and is becoming quite the local celebrity, since he is perfectly willing to talk to everyone and knock on people's doors if they don't come out to hear his thoughts on light sabers, Death Stars, and battle reenactments. We are having lots of talks about boundaries and what is street and what is park. 

We're at the stage where it feels like the life we envision for our family gets farther and farther away with every hectic fast food dinner and bungled house showing, while the layers of dust and grime (and shattered tile collecting in my decolletage) seem like 'the new normal'. It's always darkest before the dawn, it gets worse before it gets better, etc. etc. We could use a long nap and a good meal. I've discovered that my optimism about this project has a direct relationship with my blood sugar. I'm consuming a lot of sugar as a result. I would really love to see just one project coming together at this point. Soon and very soon. 

This week I'm finishing up the last few days of my second bachelor's degree, and we'll be taking the weekend to celebrate graduation. My personal next project is most likely floor refinishing, which shouldn't be too big a deal but may be complicated by the knob and tube wiring we discovered in the bathroom. It's not throughout the whole house and we were hoping it had been completely updated, but alas, no. So there may be a lot more holes in walls coming up. Fun times!