Take it off! Take it aaaaaaaaaaall off!

I never thought demolishing anything other than a piece of chocolate cake would give me such joy, but this has. Following are some pictures taken on my little Motorola phone.

Below, Dad and Craig are getting rid of the nasty, evil little doorway. What you see behind them is what will be our stylish, somewhat sunken dining/family room, the ceiling of which was demolished last weekend.

Found in the attic: Newspapers from 1964; a bottle of lip gloss, no doubt dropped by the recent roofers; one baby jumper; a chewed up rubber ball; and something yet to be identified. Fun! Hoisting bags upon bags of drywall?
Not so fun.



The doorway after.

Much, much better!

The Before Pictures

Here they are. The pictures that will make you appreciate "the after" oh-so much more. Enjoy!

View of the living room from the family room. Down the hall are the bedrooms and baths. Cedar ceilings, or possibly heart of pine, in need of a scrubbing, are throughout the living room and kitchen.



Yeah... a fireplace. It actually gets chilly in Central Florida in the winter. (Those of you in Michigan can stop smirking, thank you very much.)



This was a carport that one of the former owners enclosed. Badly. This will be the future dining and family room. Two sets of French doors are to the right.




The kitchen in desperate need of triage. This picture doesn't really show how hideous this room is. (Be thankful.)






You just can't appreciated yellow tiles until you see this bathroom. FYI: Those are floor tiles on top of linoleum that's glued on top of terrazzo. Yeow!













I don't know who thought this was stylish. Satan?






Yeah, we have a lot of work before us.

Ranch Sweet Ranch

No matter how many programs you watch on HGTV, we have learned that nothing prepares you for home renovation. Except maybe a quadruple wisdom tooth extraction.

Nearly two weeks into home ownership and I've made more calls to plumbers, exectricians, terrazzo floor guys, and drywallers than George Bush has made to his daddy.

The joy.

Still, we're thankful. Very thankful. Amazingly thankful. And while it may sound as if it's a painful process, it really isn't. At least, not yet. Maybe in another month. When we realize how much money we've spent.

That said, a note to the folks at greenstreetdetails.com: "$120 for a friggin' 10-inch drawer pull? You gotta be jokin' me!"

Thank you and stay tuned.

You may laugh. You may cry. You may feel sorry for us and make a donation to our renovation fund. It's not tax-deductible, but then neither are all those mochachinos from Starbucks.

Jacqui and Craig