Putting it all back together...

As it turns out, demolition goes a lot faster than construction... who knew??

I knew the rebuilding phase would be slower than demo was, but I hadn't anticipated just how slow. It's been SEVEN MONTHS and it feels like we've gotten almost nothing done. In reality, we have actually gotten quite a bit done, it's just been a lot of smaller, less ground-breaking things that aren't as noticeable as when you are tearing entire walls down. Plus we had Christmas in there, so we've been trying to take a little bit of a break to let the funds replenish a bit, you know how that goes!

So here's a rundown of what we (read: mostly Ryan) have accomplished thus far:

• Replaced all the first floor door hardware inside and out with new oil rubbed bronze levers (50% off at Lowe's, I love them!!!) 

  

  Out with the old, in with the new!

• Demolished basement stairs, re-framed floor, and laid new floor, complete with trap door for indoor basement access & new custom-built access ladder 

  

  Basement access progress

• Ran new gas lines for dryer, stove, and grill (with provisions for future tankless water heater in the basement) 

  

  Running new gas lines in the crawl space
• Ran new water & drain lines for washing machine
• Ran new outlets in all exterior walls
• Caulked, primed & painted ceilings, walls, cabinet & trim in bathroom and both bedrooms

  

  4 gallons of primer & 10 tubes of caulk consumed so far, more on that later...

• Framed new wall between the bathroom & office/laundry room 
  
• Demolished stair wall in living room and framed new section of full-height wall between the office/laundry/stairs and living room 

  

  Bye bye wall!

• Built new headers above the sliding glass door & all existing windows 

  

  Ryan admiring his handiwork

• Replaced the toilet, complete with new PVC flange to replace the old rotted one & patched subfloor (I'll go into more detail in a future post on this debacle) 
• Laid new stick-on vinyl tiles in the bathroom (cheap facelift!) 
  
• ORB'd the old bathroom fixtures (spray painted them Oil Rubbed Bronze, our finish of choice for the house) 

  

  Thank goodness for ORB spray paint!

• Replaced the single-pane kitchen window with a new, larger vinyl double-hung window

  

  I can see the front yard from the sink now!
• Built a temporary counter for the kitchen sink out of plywood & 2x4s

  

  No more dishes in the tub, hooray!

• Removed the tub doors and hung a curved shower curtain rod to create more space in our tiny tub
• Removed the old shower grab-bars, for the reason above (24" wide tub, people)
• Removed existing tongue-and-groove ceiling in the kitchen, to be re-used at a later date 
   

  

  Salvaged wood and ceiling droppings

• Removed all existing wood sheathing, insulated the exterior walls and installed new OSB sheathing

And the biggest accomplishment of all, on November 11th WE MOVED IN!!!

Since then we have been enjoying life and letting the bank accounts rest, but now spring has finally sprung and we are ready to get back to work. More updates to come (hopefully in a more timely manner!)