House Update #7- you wish you were here!!

Holy destruction, Batman! We're in almost over our heads at this point. The kitchen is OUT. Gone. Empty. I'll just let the pictures tell the story.
That's the wall where the dishwasher was in front of you.
That's the ghost of the pantry on the left and the fridge in the middle of the floor-less slab.
Where are all the things that used to be in the kitchen, you might ask? They've all been relocated to the living room. Be on the lookout for us on the next episode of Hoarders: Burried Alive on TLC.
To add to the redneckness, the appliances are on the sidewalk awaiting sale to someone from Craigslist (cross your fingers that actually goes through). I included the overfull dumpster in the background for your viewing pleasure.
The first glimpese of hope...the deck is done! We're going to go ahead and put new siding up behind it and then add a bench along that back wall...so there are a few more things to complete, but.... And the addition has been painted! We think it's purty.

House Update #6

We had another relatively dull week last week, but we're going full-force now. They're starting on the deck today (assuming the missing lumber arrives), the sheetrock in the new room has been primed, the interior trim work is up and we've lost some of our kitchen cabinets. The schedule had them all staying up until this coming Friday, but that never seemed like it was going to fly. Our site supervisor (Tom) and I decided to start the process early and that may be the best call we've made so far.

This is what one wall of our kitchen looks like. The pantry closet on the left is getting torn down as we speak.

This is the current state of our dining room. All of the contents of the cabinets (and pantry) that used to be along the wall you just saw are piled on the table and shoved into tubs. I have NO idea how I managed to store all that stuff in there. I'm particularly fond of the old-lady aspect of the pale pink bedsheet I used to protect the table. It's really like my worst yard-sale nightmare- dusty glassware on a pink-topped table. The only thing missing is the doily.Here's the other half of the dining room. That's the breakfast table, dog food, beer fridge and pantry stuff (add another use for a laundry basket!).This, too, shall pass. The new cabinets are slated for install on Saturday. As soon as those go up, we can reclaim most of our dining room!

Reese, you're an oak.

Here's a snippet of tonight's "discussion" at the end of a very long, napless day. We were almost all the way home from dinner with some friends when a silly band got broken. Horror of horrors. Added to that atrocity was the uninvited pulling of various car seat straps, the lack of sharing a coloring book and the stretching of a leg in the wrong direction ("she's to cloooooose to me!!!!"). Ahhh...the preschool years.

Brett: Reese- stop pestering your sister!
Makena: you broke my tulip silly band!! (face crumbling in disappointment)
Reese: I'm mad at you guys!
Us: Why are you mad at us? You're the one who keeps pestering your sister.
Reese: ....
Brett: Reese, you can be mad, that's your choice, but it's a waste of your energy.
Reese: I'M NOT MAD. I'm a tree. I'm green.
Us: (trying to stifle laughter- secretly thrilled that the anger has subsided into silliness)
Makena: You're not a tree! You're Mickey...and I'm Minnie.
Reese: NO I'M MINNIE! (buh? how did we get back to arguement in less than 10 words??)
Makena: No! Minnie is a girl. I'm Minnie. You can be the husband.
Reese: (distraught all over again)
Makena: Well, Daisy is a girl- you can be her. But I'm still Minnie.

Aaaaak.

House Update #5

I think it's been over two weeks since I've posted about the house. We've made progress, but very slow progress. The replacement windows (for the remainder of the house) came in but were three inches (!!) too wide (fault of the delivery company, not any of our guys) so we sat on our thumbs for a week waiting for the correct ones to come in. That same week was full of inspections so we'd get the framing complete one day, then spend the next day waiting for the inspector. Insulation up the day after that (a 20 minute procedure), then another day waiting for an inspector. Last week was siding (which is up but not painted- our back door neighbors just loooove their view right now!) and sheetrock. Holy dust, Batman. They also tore up all the grass under what will eventually be the deck so we've got one back door that leads to a 2' drop off onto the driveway and another that leads to a big patch of dirt (soon to be mud). Fun, messy times!

Happy Easter!

Here are a few pictures that have nothing to do with the house.

Easter (it was not a good picture taking day- no simultaneous smiles)

Hunting for eggs- they've got this figured out now and..watch out!

A few shots of the game Brett has them playing every evening. It needs a name...right now we just call it "run around as fast as you can and try to avoid being pegged with the ball". It's essentially individual Dodgeball with no sidelines. Briggs Parents: training their kids early to be the sneakiest Dodgeball players on the playground.

House Update #4

We have windows! This past week was mostly filled with less big-visual-impact stuff like electrical and HVAC work, but the big item was the installation of the windows! It makes a huge difference now that we have some natural light coming into the back of the house...although we still have the old breakfast room wall intact and, as of yesterday, a big sheet of plywood where the back door used to be.
This week we have a slew of inspections slated that will get us insulated and secure. After that, the old wall should come down. Mess, mess and more mess. We're also expecting that the replacement windows should go in this week. We've lived in this house for almost seven years and have only been able to open 4 of the existing 12 windows. Perfect timing for the onset of our nice weather!
Windows!

You can kind of get a feel for the way the back of the house looks- it's odd to see windows through our current windows. The electricians have already removed the wiring from the current wall in preparation for demo...so we don't have use of the light above the breakfast room table...it's a dark cave back there!