You May Get Dusty Just Reading This Post

Sheetrock dust is serious stuff. I would know because I've been covered in it for over a month. I find it everywhere; on my clothes, in my hair, it's even on the floor mats of my car. The one redeeming quality sheetrock dust has however, is that where there is dust, there is progress. It seems projects typically get really ugly before they get really pretty. Like most people, projects go through that "awkward stage"... the human equivalent of having braces, massive bangs, glasses, acne, etc...My house is no exception. For a few weeks our house was that kid who ate glue, a work in progress, but in shambles. To say we've been busy since my last new house post would be the understatement of the year. Truly, it's only February 4th so that's possible right?  Anyways, we've been busy and we are slowly but surely inching our way towards a finished product.

In true Brent & Courtney fashion a mere 5 days after closing on the house we began renovations.

Brent, his Dad and his brother Scott got things started with a little demolition. First thing on the agenda was to remove the wall that separated the kitchen and the dining room.

This wall ....

                             

Things got messy real fast. The next day my parents and I showed up just in time to finish off the wall.

I even got in on the action. I figure there's no point in having huge muscles if you're not gonna put them to good use.

And finally: BOOM - wall demolished!

With the wall gone the space really opened up, but we had one more major change we wanted to make that would give us additional kitchen space.

Our new kitchen layout called for us to remove this exterior door. The door was kind of random and lead to a small concrete pad on the side of the house.

While the concrete pad was fine, it really offered nothing in terms of function and the door took up valuable real estate within the kitchen so it had to go.

Back inside the house we decided to remove the plaster walls inside the kitchen.

Removing the existing cabinetry had revealed holes in the wall that needed to be patched. Upon discussions of what would be best for the project we decided to go ahead and remove the interior walls for multiple reasons:

1. To create a smooth surface.
2. To replace the old cloth wiring. 
3. To add insulation (which most houses built in this time do not have).

The issue with removing the walls was that the existing walls are plaster while the new walls would be sheetrock. The challenge we faced was the varying depths of the walls where sheetrock met plaster. To be honest if we had to blend the walls we may not of taken on this challenge, but since the transition between plaster and sheetrock would be covered with new cabinetry the varying depths became a non-issue.

Luke tried to help mop up the dust with his fur!

This is what he looked like when we left.....

 .....JUST KIDDING! 

The space looked something like this when we left it yesterday. We cleaned (massive dust piles) and got everything ready for the floor guys to begin re-finishing the downstairs hardwoods this morning!

All photos are my own.