Progress = Demolition

Spent the whole, cold afternoon at the house with A yesterday.  Did I mention it was cold?  Cause it was cold...like 30's cold...and when you only have half of your 2 system furnace installed and running and the half that works is for the upstairs, which you are not working on at the moment...it is especially cold.  We made progress though...we moved a bunch of furniture to the basement out of our living room so that we could have easier access to the room to put up walls and whatnot and so that stuff didn't get destroyed.  We then spent the remainder of the afternoon tearing down plaster and lathe from the living room wall, fireplace, and part of the entryway.  Somehow it's hard to wrap my mind around large piles of plaster rubble and now only framing standing in our living room as progress...but it is.  It is because this gives access to the furnace guys to put up their returns they need to do and it allows A to add to the framing to build parts of the support walls we need to build and finish some of the living room framing....we are moving a couple of walls around and removing a cupboard/old fireplace/vent...so...progress via demolition. We both were amazed and commented several times during the tear-down that even with all the plaster and lathe down there was STILL less dust mess than when we tore out the brick chimney in January of 2008...that was the dustiest, most nasty mess ever...seriously...we've done lots of demo and lots of drywall work too...and that beat the living snot out of them dust wise.  Just fyi. 

Before:

After:

 Before:

 After:

A is working on framing walls today in the living room, and while I would love to be there cutting lumber or using the nail gun, I had no child care...so...I have a day off.  We are praying for a warm day this week, warm like above 50 degrees and not wet...so that we can lay the rubber roof on top of the new addition, it NEEDS to get done, but with the cold snap and snow/rain, it has not had a chance to occur.  We did have a friend come out and take a look at our framing of the roof as he does lots of flat roofs to make sure it's sloped right and that we didn't miss anything.  Much to my surprise and joy he said that our framing job was better than some of the professional jobs he has seen!  That was a serious confidence booster...hoping that means that it will drain water well once everything is all said and done too.

The hope is that I will move back to the house this next weekend.  There are few things we'd like finished, like the downstairs furnace to be in before I move back...and despite my HOURS of cleaning this week, the upstairs probably needs to be wiped down again since we did all the demolition and well, dust has a great ability of traveling to places you don't want it to go.  But that is the plan, and I think I am ready to be back in my own home, doing my own thing, without other people living around me (besides the girls and A of course.)

Now for the pics...prepare for the overload...I am playing catch up since I haven't posted some in awhile.

Ceiling/Floor joists:

 Decking:

View from inside toward "bay" windows:

 Decking on the roof:

Front of the house before all this started:

A couple days ago:

Now...while looking at original pics it may SEEM like this house didn't need much...I assure you it did/does...the work being done is NEEDED to firm up the house and straighten it out, with the added benefit of a little more living space for us and the girls...as for some reason 1900's houses weren't known for large living areas or closest spaces for that matter.  Definitely making progress...but wow...it's a mess right now.