Day 1-4 - Gutting

I'm playing catch up for the past week so these first few posts will be combining work days.  We started work Friday, March 7th, the day after our closing.  The photos in yesterday's post were taken when we inspected the home before closing.  Just to clarify, the furniture and stuff you saw was not ours.
For this remodel, we have chosen to hire out some of the work that technically we could do ourselves.  With Daniel working full time and me caring for a baby who cannot be apart from me for more than 3 hours, we knew we only had so much of our own time.  We'd like the house to be ready to move in before, say, 2015.  Hence the hired help.  I told Daniel that I'd like him to teach me everything he knows so that with the next house we buy, I can just do all the work while he's at the office during the day. :)  We all have dreams!

Friday
On Friday our fun began.  It was such an exciting day at the house with work being done everywhere simultaneously.  Here's a recap of what went down that first day:

1. Dumpster Delivery - This house has plenty to throw out!  We rented a 20-yard dumpster that is currently adorning our driveway.  Not very classy but certainly necessary.
2. Carpet - A 2-man crew ripped out all the dirty smelly carpet from all 3 floors.  Did you know when you purchase new carpet through Costco the rip-out and moving your furniture come free?  Never say no to free labor!  You also get a $100 Costco gift card for every $1000 spent.  Just thought I'd share in case you're looking for new carpet and happen to be a member of my favorite store.
3. Linoleum - Another worker chipped up all the linoleum from the entry, hall, kitchen and all 3 bathrooms.  In some areas, he found up to 4 layers!
4. Bathrooms - Three plumbers came in and ripped out the vanities from the bathrooms.  They also took out the old tub in the master bath.  We found a surprise with their tear out - mold in the drywall around the master shower and behind the vanity in the powder room.  The drywall was cut out in those areas.
5. Trim - Daniel tore out all the trim in the entire house.  He certainly got his money's worth out of his hammer and pry bar that day.
6. Haul Away - I was the haul-away girl.  I ran all over the house collecting the junk and hauled it outside to the dumpster.  I threw away countless trim boards, a bathroom sink, bags of trash the previous owners had left (thanks for that), and all the blinds/drapes from the house.
7. Wallpaper & Killz Primer - Items 1-6 were done in the morning.  That evening we returned with Daniel's brother, Josh, and his wife, Haley, to work some more.  Josh and Daniel started rolling Killz on the walls and ceilings to help seal out the smoke smell.  Haley and I did my least favorite activity... wall paper removal.  Seriously people, NEVER put wallpaper in your house unless you are just wanting to punish whoever buys it next.

Here are some photos from Friday:

Ok so this photo is obviously posed, but I did actually use the pry bar to remove all the nails left behind in the walls where Daniel removed trim.  Tedious but necessary task.

Josh rolled on the Killz nice and thick in the living room.

Master Bath Shower - New bathtub installed and walls with insulation ripped out due to mold.  We will be installing cement board, sealed against moisture around the tub and tiling the shower walls.

Unfortunately the guys began to roll Killz on the ceiling before realizing our furniture needed to be covered in plastic.  Guess I have some gentle scraping to do when we move in.  I'll let you know how that turns out.

Haley peeling wallpaper one tiny strip at a time in the dining room.  It went faster later when we figured out what we were doing.

Saturday

Derrick, Daniel's brother-in-law came to help us on Saturday morning.  He rolled more Killz on the walls and ceilings of the kitchen, hallway and den.  Derrick is an artist.  I think it just about killed him to just roll the primer on without carefully cutting in all the corners like he usually does.  He's the ultimate perfectionist when it comes to painting!

Daniel and I worked on getting off the 3"x3" tile on the walls of the master bathroom.  I was surprised at how tricky that job was.  Using a pry bar and hammer, the tiles kept breaking in half instead of prying off in one piece.  To help make the job go faster, Daniel pulled out this cool tool that I had never seen before.  I think my mom actually got it for him for Christmas off his wish list.  Here's the tool:

Makita Multi Tool

He used this to cut the grout lines between the tiles.  After the grout was cut, I was able to quickly pry off tiles one by one.  They came off as whole tiles so the job went much faster.  So thanks Mom, that tool rocks!

Sunday
Sunday is our day of rest (as it should be).  We don't want to get burnt out so we've decided no heavy labor on Sundays.  Daniel went over to let out our dogs (they are staying at the house amidst the chaos) and I'm pretty sure he did some work too, against our own rules.  Just can't keep the man down!  I believe this is what he did Sunday.

Master Bath - The walls were pretty damaged behind the tiles.  We decided against tiling these walls for now, so the wall will need new sheetrock.  He cut out the old and also removed a medicine cabinet mirror from the wall.

Monday
I went to the house during the day on Monday to finish removing the wallpaper in the dining room.  When Daniel and I returned that evening, we took down the borders in the nursery and master bedroom.  Wallpaper removal complete!  Boy was I glad to have that over with.

We also got started on the kitchen cabinets.  Oh how I would love to rip out the kitchen completely and put in a new one!  But as I've learned from watching HGTV, a full kitchen remodel seems to run between $20-30K once you include the appliances.  Since we have to buy new appliances, we've got to find ways to update the kitchen without breaking the bank.  So we're going to paint the cabinets, install new hardware and tile the countertops.  Only time will tell if we can pull off a makeover using the existing materials.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Cabinet Makeover - Step 1: Prime the wood.  We experimented with a paint sprayer for the first time to apply the primer.  The primer was thick, perhaps a little too thick for the sprayer.  It seemed to work slightly better after a little water was added.  We took turns spraying and applying coats with a brush. 

So that's a recap of our first 4 days with the house.  It was fun tearing it all apart, but now it's time to put it back together!  Stay tuned for the next post covering days 5-8.  After that, I promise the posts will get shorter with only 1 or 2 days covered at a time.

Fun Fact!  Including the hired workers and help from family we've received, we have put 96 hours of work into the house over the last 7 days.

Dream big!