the Doors

Today we bought insulation and doors from Menards. It was fun. It's nice to be reminded that we will have a house one day and that eventually we will be done with deconstruction. Considering we've knocked everything down (all walls and ceilings) and we're just about done with cleaning it, we are entering the final leg of deconstruction. Soon it'll be time to choose things and decorate. But first we need to fix the structural concerns, get the furnace ducts, update electrical, and install plumbing. I hope that flies by because I want to design our house!! By the way, I'm pretty excited about our doors! This is the front door. It has blinds in the glass that you control. How come I never knew about this before?!

Burgled

This house is full of surprises! Mainly, that it was built/remodeled so poorly. We found out that there are a couple of boards missing from the floor upstairs (tucked away behind a wall) and that a weight bearing beam isn't actually connected to anything on the main floor. Also, the upstairs roof isn't really structurally sound and we'll have to throw a couple of beams up top in the master bedroom. Not that big of a deal, but we will have to alter our window selection (even though we already ordered them) and get an engineer out to ensure that we are making this house sound.

Yesterday was also quite discouraging because we found out that we had been robbed. They took Jason's saws, Eric's tool box, our bag of empty bottles, and coke from the fridge. Dead serious. Cokes. It's quite unfortunate, but it could have been worse. Some of our tools were scattered throughout the house so they didn't gank everything. They also left the ladders. We are a little smarter now about our tools and take them home. We don't even know how they got in, which is a little frightening.

Here, for the most part, is what our house is going to look like! The only problem with this design is that we had wanted a slider in the kitchen to lead to the deck we are going to eventually build. We realize we may not have room for a slider, but a french door will do. The light will really open up the room. The new main floor design will be posted as soon as it is available.

Dumpster #3

Third dumpster. I was hoping this would be the last, but I'm not so sure after today. We have torn one ceiling down (in the downstairs bedroom) and raised an 8 foot ceiling back to the original 9 foot. We are trying to salvage on ceiling in the whole house, but other than that, they are all coming down.

Speaking of coming down, one of our chimneys tumbled down yesterday. I was hoping to leave it up in the giant room upstairs, but I guess Logan had a different plan.

I would try to explain our ideas on this blog, but when we get a drawing of our house (on Monday hopefully!) and place it on here it will be easier to understand.

So, keep checking photos and hopefully in a few days the architect's plans will be posted!

Demolition

The past couple of days have been demolition days. Carpet, staples, doors, kitchen cabinets: GONE. We also started taking the walls down to the studs. So far we've knocked out the great room and the living room, 1/2 of the bedroom downstairs, some of the upstairs, and a lot of the kitchen. We have accomplished a lot, thanks in large part to our friends who have helped us. However, we have come across the bee roadblock. They have taken quite a liking to our walls and windows upstairs. We aren't sure how many live there, but I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers are in the hundreds. So, we had to stop for the day upstairs. That was okay because we had already filled the 2 ton dumpster. In 2 days. This house look so much better now that it is strictly studs. I'm excited for the next few months!

Also, last Friday we found out that there was no heat upstairs at all. They apparently had random vents that didn't actually connect to any duct work and that the previous owners were pretty into gravity heating. I guess we are going to need a brand new furnace and new duct work. It's probably for the best though.

Demolition pictures

Downpayment

Well, they accepted our offer and we shall now officially own the trash house in about a week. Eric and I went over to the house and took detailed measurements so I'll post the makeshift blueprints as soon as we draw them up. We also went to Home Depot to get an idea of prices for everything. It was a lot of fun picking everything out. Or it will be until the bill. This is going to be quite the money/time consuming project. Nevertheless, we are excited! 

You can see our house/neighborhood if you look up the street view for 1074 Logan St, Grand Rapids on Google. Be sure and check out the houses on either side of ours- beautiful. 

Impulse buy?

We were house searching/ apartment shopping in Eastown and came across an $11,000 house. Curious, we made an appointment to look at it. It needs to be gutted but it is exactly where we want to be. So, we have the option of buying a dirt cheap house and completely remodeling it, paying rent and signing a lease, or buying a nice (already remodeled) house. As cute as that remodeled Sigsbee house was, we aren't interested in a mortgage.

The trash house does have a certain tempting charm. Plus, if we're gutting it, we can pretty much design it how we want it. We are getting a builder to look at it today and then calling the realtor tonight to possibly make an offer. Weird.

before pictures of the trash house