Before we move in (so soon!) we thought getting some of the messiest demolition was good to get out of the way.  We also wanted to get the floors patched and refinished prior to the furniture coming.

My dad, my brother, my husband and my mom all came over for the demo party. Tex (aka Husband) has never knocked down a wall before, nor have I, we are hoping that this won’t be a terrible idea.  My dad thinks he’s a contractor but he’s not in the business, nor has he ever pulled a permit.  The good news is we know the walls are not structural so it’s okay to cut throught these partitian walls.

First thing to do decide what to take down and what to leave up. we take all of the paneling down in the dining room we have to disconnect the old fixtures, thermostat, chair rail then and decide how much of the walls to remove.

We found some amazing wallpaper behind the paneling it’s definitely original 1950’s banana leaf wallpaper!  Too bad it’s in top shape it would of been fabulous to try and save it at least in some section, at least it may serve as inspiration for the house warming party! How does a 1950’s ‘Before’ party sound?!  Leaves room for an ‘After’ party later me thinks!

some serious vintage wallpaper

We also figured out that the walls are not plaster for leaving or even sheetrock they are some kind of hybrid cement wall basically they are twice as big as normal sheetrock and very hard but a 20 year old and a sawzall is all you need!

the hired muscle

Then the mess really started!

My brother in law came over the next morning, who actually works in construction, and look at the place and said, “Great you have knocked it all down now what?” Well, we need a plan, but at least we knew the three small, dark rooms we had would not due.  Now we have more of a clean slate to work with!

It already looks amazing, the room is so much wider and the space is so much brighter, it’ll be an awesome kitchen/great room when it’s done!

so much light!