Demo Day #'s 2, 3 and 4

Rudy has been killin' it in the demo department and the boys and I have been working hard right alongside him. We are anxious to get to every project!...problem is, there's a million of them! ;) It's been pretty disappointing that our contractor guy hasn't been in any kind of rush nor at all concerned with making a great first impression. Though Rudy has put in an enormous amount of time into this house already, we are moving on to other projects while we wait for the walls to go up in our bedrooms. Crazy how we hustled to get the rooms prepped only to have them sit as they are while our guy is off on another project. We had hoped to have the bedrooms completely walled, painted, and floored by our move-in date next weekend. So...in this process, we've learned a thing or two about contractors and the type of guy we'll be hiring next, instead of this current one.

I'm excited to share what we've been up to, but first, let me go back to night #1:
We'd been given a nice bottle of wine for Christmas from a patient of Rudy's and since we first found the house and put our offer on back in December, we decided to save this bottle for our first night in our new home. It was really fun to (finally) be able to open it up and toast.

We wrote our new address and the date on our Ebenezer stone, marking our thankfulness for this blessing. These stones represent things we have prayed for and seen God's faithfulness to us.

We then walked holding hands through the whole house, yard, and guest house while we prayed for each aspect of our lives here and the guests we are excited to have.

Then, before we put the boys down to bed in their sleeping bags, we did some demo as a family in the boys' room. Oh, and I have to add, the boys found these Mardi Gras necklaces and we all had to wear one, hence the necklace Rudy is wearing. :)

Kyle was all smiles and wanted to work all night. Gavin, on the other hand was all about working as little as possible. If this picture doesn't just say it all! :)

 Ru started on the office and let the boys help knock out a wall.

Then we unsuccessfully tried to get them to bed in their sleeping bags. It was too noisy and Kyle was too excited. So, after a valiant effort, I packed the boys up and went home while Rudy finished. The original roof was made out of rocks. So, you can imagine the rubble and dust that fell down on Ru as he worked.

After seeing what was behind these walls, we had no doubt in our mind we made the right call to gut it down to the studs and redo 'em. The smell alone will be worth it!

Tada!! Ru didn't go home until every screw, nail, and piece of material was out of this room. What a night!

Here's the first load we've sent to the dump. The sellers left a decent amount of things we've had to haul away.

Today (Saturday), we gained some ground that gets us all sorts of excited. It was a family work day, including our first visitors, Auntie Michelle and Grammie and Grandpa. We also met more neighbors and felt welcomed on the cul-de-sac. We started the day with a call to Kyle's coach's dad who runs a chimney masonry business. We hurried over to the house to get started on some more demo before he came over to talk business.

This is the wall that divides the 2 main rooms of the house. We knew when we very first looked at this house that we'd have to take some if not all of this down.

It slants at an angle, is super thick and huge, and frankly, divides the house way too much. Here's a look from other angles:

That door opens to a sizable pantry. Then, there's another fireplace. 

 When you're walking through the hallway out into the family area, this is what you see and practically run into.

So, the boys got in their work clothes (thanks again, Uncle Ryan!) and got to work taking this beast down a notch. Kyle followed behind Rudy, taking out every screw. He earned 5 cents for each one. Gavin helped pick up the screws that fell to the ground and was paid as well. :)

Kyle is a quick learner and ended up earning $15 (do the math...or don't...but that's a lot of screws!)

 By the time our masonry guy came, this is what the wall looked like...including a couple of cute boys!

The part behind Gavin is just a facade and that's what we tackled next...

Ru continued working on a big project under the kitchen sink while Grandpa and Kyle finished up this side and my Dad and I hauled out bricks from the other side.

 Thanks, Mom and Dad, for your awesome help today!

Tomorrow, we'll take out the pantry that you see on the right side.

I went to look at bricks at the masonry yard. Lots of decisions to make about the style and layout. My head is spinning and the internet I must troll. ;) We know we will straighten out the wall/chimney and may possibly make it come together as one, see-through to the other side, type of deal. No matter what, we'll lose that pantry and shave off a layer of brick by the hallway. The kitchen already has more storage than our old kitchen, so I figure if I've made my old one work, I'll be able to make this work until we have the money to gut the kitchen and make it exactly what we want.

Aside from working hard doing a ton of things like raking leaves, pulling weeds, trimming plants, moving more outdoor items from the old house to the new house, and hauling bricks away, the boys enjoyed playing in their backyard. :)

They both love to run around, rake leaves, climb trees, play on the "playground," play with sticks from the wood piles, swim in the hot tub and ride their scooters with the neighbor friend around the cul-de-sac.

And with that folks, these tired and sore Martins are going to hit the sack! Well, minus a Rudy. He's spending his 5th night in a row up to the wee hours of the morning at the house...hoping I can convince him to take care of himself and call it early(ier) tomorrow evening. :)