Let's Get it Started in Here

While waiting for the official green light from the city, after we took a deep breath, the anticipation got to us (we might have well got a first time reno-er's badge!) and we passed the point of no return and started making a big ole mess of the basement.   Being the super organized  control freak that I am, I needed to ensure that H and my biggest bro didn't get too carried away with their enthusiastic hammer swings, so I did a little prep work before we kicked things off....

Yes... I labeled the walls!!  My name is Sarah and I have a addiction to organizing!  With my instructions keeping the boys in check, I let them loose.  First up, opening up the walls that would be eventually disappearing... starting with the wall that was splitting up the new kitchen.

H from the old hallway

Me from the old laundry side

We between the three of us we made pretty quick work of things, and soon we were able to start seeing how our new space would be looking.

hello future doorway to our new shared laundry

Nice to meet you future laundry room

Psst, the green tape is the dry run H and I did to make sure the new spaces (suite kitchen and shared laundry) would work together, our original idea was for a wider laundry room (the right tape line- which would have allowed for side by side washer and dryer), but it poked too far into the kitchen making the passageway awkwardly narrow.  With a bit of online investigation we figured out that the side by side washer dryer we inherited with the house are stackable (woop woop!), so we quickly shrank down the laundry room to give us the needed space in the kitchen. Yay for figuring out those kinda big issues before forking over tons of time and money on a badly functioning layout.

Mwuh, love you open concept kitchen

With that taken care of, and the final OK from the City, we rounded up the troops (aka my my very gullible sweet family) who offered to pitch in , help save us some reno pennies, and really get our house dirty, .... yup it was time for the real demo. Bribed with promises of beer and one of chef H's delicious meals ...we didn't way it would be a home made meal ;) , we took our troops into battle. The enemy, the uninsulated (hello, I could've heard a mouse fart down there was so little sound dampening between the floors of our house, and us exposing the upstairs hardwood was not helping) ceilings, and panelled and stucco'd walls.

Lucky for us my family have no probs getting their hands dirty and pretty quickly we were off to the races. I think H was channeling his inner Wack-a-Mole skilz so the rest of us gave him a pretty wide berth as he swung his hammer about.

By the end of the very dusty and grimy weekend, we were all wrapped up, and were left with nekked walls and ceilings, ready for our contractor to come in and make it beautiful.

Oh, and yes, we got rid of the burgundy carpet down there - sorry Mom and Dad your "make do" idea was voted off the island, and H and I don't regret it a bit!