Demo Day!

How do you go from this:

To this?

Well, you first have to endure this:

Let me start by saying: demo day is never A day.  Nope.  Definitely not! Don't let Chip Gaines fool you.  Demo day is 28 days over the course of four months!  A newborn, full time jobs, Company Command, full time graduate school, and winter have all limited DH and I to working only on the weekends.  Four months later, I can't help but feel like we lost so much time.

Let me also point out something that might have been obvious to everyone else, but us.  Three Thousand square feet is more than double Dolce Olin's 1300.  It never seemed to end.  Every time we thought we were almost done, there was another room, another wall, another piece of plywood to pry off the floor. It. Never. Seemed. To. End!

Not only does it never end, but the 117-year old dust from the horse-hair plaster was a struggle on another level.  Whereas at Dolce we purchased those flimsy cheap masks, for Betty we went through 3 different filter masks hoping to protect our lungs and their breathing capability!

And the Dumpsters! How many 30 foot dumpsters do you need for a 3000sqft house?  Don't answer that, it's a lot!

Before we started framing we went through 5 dumpsters and of course we always went over weight on those darn things.  TIP: When choosing a dumpster company, consider a few things: cost of extra weight, length of time allowed at construction site before incurring additional charges, and of course, size of dumpster.  A company might offer a great deal by having the dumpster for an unlimited amount of days--something that is advantageous when you're demo is going slower than anticipated--but if they charge outrageous fees for going over weight, you might want to reconsider whether or not you need the dumpster for that long of a period and if you can speed things up.

With a new layout design that we both loved and shortly after our building permit was approved DH, my dad, and I picked a spot and a hammer and went for it...for four months.  Did I mention how it took 4-months?

Up first?  The 117-year old Chimney that stands between us and the open concept we crave.

Money, Money, Money...

We had a handful of contractors come through Betty to give us insight into what it would cost to have the home professionally demo'ed.  Three Thousand square feet of construction material, removal of 2 Chimneys and a whole bunch of 30ft dumpsters came in at $20,000.

DIYing it all came in at a total of $3,200 and 28 six-hour weekend days. One thing that was a must, that we definitely would not touch was the removal of the 100-year old asbestos.  We hired a licensed contractor--well worth it-- and paid $3,800 for the safe removal of the pipes and tile floor.

Was saving $13,000 worth potentially losing 3 months that we could have had for our trades folks to come in instead?  I think that if we were under a time crunch to move in, I would say No Way!  But we're not, we have some time to work with.  Our limited budget is the most important factor for us.    Saving $13,000 means we can convert the home to gas and install central air and heating!