Renovating upstairs

The house we moved into was tenanted upstairs when we took possession, so we've been living in the basement in-law suite. They were given notice by the previous owners on April 1st, so they had until the end of May before they had to move out.

On Saturday, the tenants moved to their new place. It was sad to see them go because they are absolutely wonderful people, but it was necessary unfortunately. We're hoping to keep in touch with them.

On Saturday evening, despite feeling like crap because I have a cold, I started on the renos. Mom came and helped me remove the carpets and underlay. On Sunday, Dad and I demolished an L-shaped wall in the kitchen, removed wood paneling from a long wall in the dining room and living room, removed the kitchen cabinets and appliances, and drywalled/mudded the hole in the ceiling where the wall was. Yesterday Cheryl picked up the paint, and Dad and I were doing electrical when one of the pieces of wood Dad tried to walk on in the attic gave way and he nearly went through the kitchen ceiling! Thankfully Dad escaped injury, but the kitchen ceiling didn't fare as well. Our attempt to replace the drywall was not done well enough in my opinion (not my Dad's though), so I'm looking for a drywall professional.

But now it's time to get back to work. Dad's continuing with the work upstairs. We've found an electrician to finish the electrical.

Our new kitchen cabinets are being installed on the 9th. We need the electrical done soon so that we can put the subfloor (pictures would explain that dependency, I don't have time to explain, but trust me on this one) in the kitchen and dining room in time. We also need to paint the parts of the walls that won't be hidden by cabinets (which isn't much, really), and the kitchen ceiling (which is currently buggered).

I have got to say, taking down walls with sledgehammers and cro-bars is amazingly fun. Once we were done I was looking around the house for other walls that might be expendable. ;-)

Sometime this week I'll post some photo albums from each day of our progress.

Written on June 1, 2004