Closed on property Sept. 19 (national talk like a pirate day)
Demolition began Dec. 16.
Here's proof! Instead of before/after pics, I am presenting before/during pics.
Here's the gnome kitchen... I can't believe it actually looks SMALLER with the cabinets and everything out of the room.
Here's the main room (1). Home Depot decided to deliver all of the materials BEFORE demolition commenced. Brilliant! (so f'ing stupid I can't begin to tell you.)
and #2:
The original floor (covered up by 4 or 5 other floors) is probably gorgeous, but would never survive a refinishing. It was laid in 1902 and from what I could tell, it looked like thin-strip hardwood set horizontally. I'm having a leveler set and then wide-plank espresso stained hickory laid, vertically.And now, for the grand finale! The haz mat room known as the bathroom!
The funky, original bathtub (from 1902!) was hauled off... I can only imagine how much it weighed. The drain stopper was located OUTSIDE of the tub - it looked like a random pipe sticking about a foot and a half out of the floor next to the top of the tub, with a complicated catch at the top that you had to pull up and somehow reverse latch in order for the water to collect in the tub. The original tub was really deep, and sometime in the 40s, Mary (previous owner) added a shower head. Now, you'd think that you'd either connect the shower head pipes to the bathtub pipes, but that was impossible (apparently). So next best thing (you'd think) would be to install the hot/cold on/off handles at, oh I don't know... counter height, right?Not in this case. The shower handles were installed DIRECTLY above the bathtub handles. Whatever.
So the pipes are in pretty bad shape, but that's all part of the job as far as I'm concerned.
The contractor told me he has 2 full crews on the job until it's done, because the job's been so botched up from the start. That's nice to hear, but I don't believe it for a second. Although last Wednesday, I stopped by around 10pm and the plumber and one assistant were still there, fixing a "big problem" with the new bathtub. I didn't even ask what the problem was. (But to be fair to me, I *did* go get them Starbucks venti's and sammys.)
I have to price new windows and kitchen appliances and I feel what's left of my money slipping away, but somewhere deep down, lurking, is the start of some excitement! Quickly overwhelmed by a feeling of dread that my beloved bedroom furniture (which is black) will blend right into the espresso flooring.
later
