We finally brought in a dumpster to clear out the demolition debris from our work thus far.  Until now, we'd been storing it all in garage.  Unfortunately, due to the excessive rain we've gotten all month, the delivery truck wasn't able to maneuver the dumpster around the turn in the backyard to get it closer to the garage.  So Brad and Tom had to physically move everything, load by load.  It took all day to empty the garage and fill the dumpster.  But it's done.

Brad received these gloves and goggles on Anneliese's birthday for his "half-birthday."  Yes folks, you heard me right.  Brad received a half-birthday present - on my birthday.  Doesn't seem quite right, does it??!  Regardless, we are thankful that Martha and John thought to get these for Brad.  As you can see, they've already come in quite handy!

One of the more significant changes we'll be making to the house is to open up the walls between the existing kitchen, entryway and breakfast nook to create a larger, more open space.  John came home for the holidays and stopped over at the house to help with the kitchen demo this week.  It doesn't look like much yet, but this is already a huge improvement!

Today we tackled the garage ceiling. This was the most difficult and tedious demo we’ve done so far, as this has been the only wire mesh plaster we’ve encountered. I took all afternoon, but we got it down. After we were done with this project we removed the basement shower.

Plumbers have been working the last two days to assess the plumbing. On Thursday they were able to fix all the leaks in the basement, install shutoff valves to the upstairs plumbing, and pressurize the basement system. On Friday they installed a new toilet in the basement, repaired water service to utility sink, and tested the upstairs plumbing. Only seems to be one leak in the upstairs plumbing… We have decided to keep water off to the upper part of the house – this way we only have to heat the basement, and can have access to a toilet and running water. 

We also had two electricians through today. It appears the entire house (except the furnace, water heater, and defunct air conditioner) are still serviced by original knob and tube system. We have determined the course of action will be to replace/upgrade the entire electrical service.

Today we removed a few additional walls at the bottom of the basement steps. We also started to remove kitchen cabinets. Got all the cabinets out, execpt the kitchen sink. That will have to wait for another day.

We also met with a concrete company today to discuss replacing the driveway and steps. Driveway appears to be fairly straight forward, but rear steps will require some additional thought/analysis...

In anticipation of plumbers coming this week, we removed the ceiling in the breakfast room to expose the plumbing in the upstairs bathroom. Also removed the drywall and some plaster/lathe in the back room off the kitchen, and stuffed openings to the outside with insulation.

Today we met with a fencing company. They provided quotes to replace the existing chain link fence with either a cedar fence or a black aluminum (wrought iron style) fence. We are leaning toward the aluminum fence. This wouldn't take place until the spring, but we are in the process of gather numbers to prioritize projects.

Plumbing company completed the sewer line scope today. They did an intial scope prior to closing, but their camera line wasn't long enough. They brought back a longer camera today. Everything looked to be in good shape - great news!

Above are before (left) and after (right) photos  of today's progress. We continued with basement demo, removing a few walls surrounding the basement staircase and around the bathroom. We also removed some of the foliage around the back of the house (in an effort to keep the critters from getting in). Our architect was also at the house today taking measurements to create existing house plans. Steady progress…