Demolition - end of Week 1.

A busy week at the house...we worked 6 out of 7 days, only taking a day off to celebrate a birthday.  I keep reminding myself that this is a marathon, not a sprint, so I don't need to get everything done thisveryinstantrightnowhurryup! 

So far, we've demolished:
- all floor coverings (carpet and underlay) except for the kitchen sheet flooring
- all baseboards
- all electrical faceplates and outlet covers
-  the ramp to the Family  Room
- the mirror tile around the wet bar
- started on the cedar around the living room columns
- the sauna benches, door and one wall of cedar panelling
- the linen closet in the main bath
- all closet fittings and doors
- scraped popcorn ceilings off the master bedroom and Family Room
- gwb cabinet in the loft hallway and at the base of the stairs
- the short curb and painted stickon floor tiles at the base of the stairs

We just tackled that last one at the end of the day yesterday, after we have already cleaned up and were ready to head home.  We've named the podium under the loft at the base of the stairs the 'Zen Garden' and have plans for a water feature, art niche and better lighting.  However, the floor level is the same as the main living/dining area and taking out the curb at the bottom of it has made a huge difference.  Score!

Now, we get to deal with the raised dining room platform, hack up a couple hundred pounds of iron handrail, scrape the rest of the popcorn ceilings and perhaps some exploratory demolition to confirm there's already a beam in place between the kitchen and dining room so the wall can come down.  Should be a fun weekend!

We might need a bigger boat, though.

And the fun begins....Demolition (Day 1 and 2)

After a fabulous 1976-themed pre-renovation party, Jean and the girls and I got down to work.  There will be a post dedicated to the party, but the photo above gives a hint of the fabulousness that ensued, complete with shag and afro wigs.

Saturday and Sunday saw all outlet and switch faceplates removed, baseboards and closet doors pried off, carpet and underlay rolled up and tossed outside and some old window coverings removed.  Once the dust settled, we now have a slightly fresher smelling house in Early Plywood style.

The subfloor seems to be in great condition (3/4" fir plywood - woot!) but needs to be screwed down as all the 30 year old nails have loosened.  The future clinic space is a pain to clean up since the rubber backing from the carpet has adhered to the concrete.  Ditto for the bonus room upstairs.

Despite not having the original construction drawings, everything was pretty well as expected as demolition proceeded.  Well, almost everything.  The future toilet location in the master ensuite needs to be tweaked since there's massing ducting running under the floor and a platform that the old double vanity was built over (that explains the lack of cupboards under the vanity) that has to stay as is.  So, a slight modification to the new WC compartment and a new art niche/water feature in the front hall and problem solved.  Other little quirks to the house include a 3" floor level difference from Family Room to Kitchen and a redundant 'stage' on one side of the bonus room, both of which should be able to be resolved so flooring can run continuously on one level. 

Next on the demolition checklist is the cabinet in the middle of the upstairs loft corridor and the redundant dining room platform complete with a 200lb one piece iron handrail.  Fun, fun, fun!