happy anniversary

one year ago today, we walked through the open house held at what has now become our cosmetic fixer. ahhh memories. to commemorate this special weekend, we demo-ed the room formerly known as the laundry room. on saturday we pulled out the existing cabinets and built-in pantry.

here's the lovely skanky pantry in the laundry room (we never dared use).



here are the cabinets in the laundry room that would have resided over a washer and dryer.



a little muscle and our good friends superbar and sawzall got that pantry right out of there.



the laundry cabinets were cake for pros like us.



on sunday, with a little help from a friend, we took down the plaster and lathe from two walls.





after the friend exited, we tackled the laundry room floor - only 3 layers of linoleum, plus rotten particle board - yippee! and we still weren't done...



monday was a short day that entailed finishing laundry room floor removal and beginning powder room wall and floor removal. check out the original hex tile floor in the powder room:



of course, we only had several layers to dig through to find it.



we're tired.

bye bye band camp

we spent the last couple of weeks shopping, shopping, and more shopping. that might sound like fun, but it's really a lot of running around, quote finding, and stress - especially when you are supposed to be making progress in demo-ing the old stuff. as one could predict, everything is costing twice as much as we expected.

after selecting the cabinets, it was finally time - demolition began! the first order of business (which was supposed to be simple) was to remove the tile band in the breakfast nook, the area we call the lounge - that's where lori sits and drinks while jason prepares dinner.

the lounge prior to demolition:



it turns out that the tile was applied directly to the plaster walls so removal of the tile meant removing the plaster. that was no simple matter - lots of chiseling and mess. isn't our house lovely?