Another week of demo down

Kitchen today

Before

 

 

 

 

It’s been a busy, dirty week at the Holiday House. The entire upstairs is demoed, and the crew made major headway on the kitchen. It’s still weird to see our perfectly good house so torn up, but it’s gotta get ugly before it gets pretty.

Some good stuff this week:

 

 

>> We uncovered hardwood in our kitchen. It was hidden under a layer of tile and a layer of linoleum, and because the planks are ¾ inch thick, we are optimistic that we’ll be able to sand the floor and make it work. Of course, some spots look pretty rough, so we will need to feather in new planks too. Should be a good project. The photo above shows a spot that had been covered by cabinets.

>> We got rid of all the cabinets. They were not original (not even the boxes, though the inspector said otherwise when we bought the house), and they were cheap and falling apart. None of us will miss them one bit.

>> We discovered layers of wallpaper in the kitchen. I am crazy about stuff like this. It’s beautiful, and I love the different styles hung over the years as trends changed. I’ll be posting photos Monday.

>> When a homeowner long ago tore out the original windows, he (I’m assuming it was a man) cut the ropes on the weight-and-pulley system (read more about that kind of system here). So next to our window frames and secured within the walls, we found a bunch of the old weights and cords from the original windows. We won’t do anything with them, but it was fun to see them anyway.

Some bad stuff:

>> We discovered water damage in the upstairs bathroom and in the kitchen by the sink. But that’s good news too because we can replace the damaged materials while the walls are open, making them strong enough to last another 80 years.

>> The air quality in the house is abysmal, so no kids allowed.

Remodeling a house is a lot of work, even for me—and I’m not doing any of the heavy lifting. This week we also figured out square footages for tile, which I’m ordering this weekend. All our kitchen lighting has arrived safe and sound, so for now my shopping list is looking a bit shorter.

You guys, this is so much fun! I hope more young and young-ish couples will decide to love these old houses back to life. It’s good for communities, and it’s a blast. •

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