The Red Monster

At Fenway Park the left field wall stands 37 feet tall and is affectionately called, by both the Red Sox and it's frenemies, the Green Monster.  Although you might think that the Sox built the wall to prevent homeruns, they actually built it to hide the view of the field from non-paying spectators that would stand outside of the park.

That's exactly how I felt about our 117 year old brick fireplace--it was built to obstruct my waterview!  The fireplace was three stories tall emerging from the basement to the family room, through the master bedroom, up the attic and out the roof.  It's our very own Green Monster--but with red brick and faux panel. 

Although we try to save as much as we can--took us forever to safely remove all of the moldings-- I think DH and I both accepted early on that there probably wasn't a way to save the Red Mo nster from demolition.  We spent weeks working with our architect to figure out a way to save the fireplace while still getting our views.

Unfortunately, there was no way to save the Red Monster, no matter how we drew it out.    One of the biggest reasons we purchased this home was because of all of the light and the amazing views.  Although 117, it just couldn't stay.

 
Before we began the demo, we had our plans approved by the city Building Inspector and we had to figure out if it was structurally feasible to take it down.  We had a chimney expert inspect the structure-- we learned that most chimneys are not structural and don't hold anything up.  Although the chimney wasn't holding anything up, we did come across plumbing that was placed flush with the chimney wall and all of those pipes will need relocating.

There was no asbestos and we learned it cost about $5000 for the chimney to be removed. There's a lot that we can do with $5000, heck, we need the $5k for everything else.  So to DH it made sense that we DIY the demo.  For me?  No joke, that roof slop alone was worth me paying a professional to get up there and do it.   Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to convince DH of that, so up he went.

Taking down a chimney--or two as we took the one that vented the old oil-heating system-- was a lot of hard work and our backs are still recovering.  Those bricks from the late 1800s were meant to last FOREVER! It took DH, my dad, BIL, and myself 4 solid weekends to take both of those chimneys down.  There were a few heart attacks along the way--the steep roof could have been a killer.  There was so much old DUST.  DO NOT skip on investing in really really good masks.  We had to patch the roof, add floor joists to the new empty area, and I ended up making a lot of runs taking the bricks from the inside into the dumpster.

In the end, I'm a little sad to see the Red Monster go, but I can't  wait to see the ocean while standing in my kitchen.

Fact: Bricks are heavy!

The DUST!

DH trying not to get himself killed

Second Floor Chimney Gone!

Open Concept

Our clean up system wasn't exactly the Ford Assembly Line

Fun Fact: What did we do with all of those bricks?  We placed an ad on Craigslist.  If you could haul the bricks away, you could have them for free.  Many of the bricks were in really good shape and could be recycled and used for an outdoor patio or walkway.  Giving them away was also a cost-saving measure as we had weight restrictions with our dumpster.   

Money and Cents:

Demo: Took 4 weekends for two chimneys, but aside from our time, it cost nothing to do it ourselves.  We took wood from the demo and extra shingles from the garage to patch the roof.  The joists were covered under our framing contract--more on that later!

Savings: About $4000 after dumpster and joist-framing costs

Dining Room—Construction Done!

We have a dining room again!  Can you believe we got it all done in just two weeks?!

I'm really happy with how everything turned out despite all of the noise and dust.  Two weeks post-construction and I can vaguely remember how bad the dust really was.  I think about how amazing it is to look at our "before" pictures and see the difference we've made, especially since 80% of this project was DIY!

Before: I'm so excited that we took this room from 70s drab

After: To modern classic!  (Don't mind the first apartment furniture!)












Here's the recap:

We demo'ed the room to the studs, took down a load bearing wall, and added a beam.  We outsourced the  beam building and our HM also stuck around to teach DH and I how to remove the existing wall and replace it with the beam.

We had an electrician wire the room for recessed lighting—electricity is not something I'm comfortable around yet—added insulation, and drywalled our first room!

We breezed through the remaining items on our to-do list after the drywall mud dried.  Once dry, we sanded, painted, added molding, designed and built the wainscoting.

I can't wait to create a dining room inspiration board and find great furniture!  I really want a round dining room dinner table and funky chairs.  

What do you think?

Dollars and Cents


Yep, I admit it, I blew my budget.   But there is good news; we finished the project on time!  Well almost, we still need to caulk the crown molding seams.  

We blew our budget by $500 not factoring in the estimated $500 we lost in materials in the coffered ceiling debacle.  So $500 isn't really that bad right?

Where did our $3500 go? A large chuck of our budget went to the expected big ticket items including the load bearing wall ($1300), the removal of the construction material ($500), and recessed lighting ($400).  A big chunk also went to the expensive crown molding ($350) DH fell in love with while traveling on our honeymoon.  Insulation, paint, drywall, the remaining molding and wainscoting cost an estimated $950.  

Was it worth it?  Definitely.  The removal of the load bearing wall really opens up the space and flow and it's a great solution to the 600sqf addition that would take forever to save for.

Sneak Peek: Dining Room Rehab

From circa 1970s drab:

To the green that didn't work out:

Saydee Supervising

To the bare bones minus a wall:

We are having so much fun with demo and just completed the load bearing wall with the help of a handyman (HL) who shall now be referred to as HL.   I'm not going to sugar coat the long hours it took to complete the demo, but it's so rewarding to have done it ourselves and save a TON of money.  Demo tends to be my stress release and for DH a pain in the....

We have two weeks and a $3000 budget to rehab the dining room.  Keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get it all done!