Old Brick House: Springing Forward

This week marks an exciting milestone. We are finally done with demolition, and are moving on to rebuilding. It was great to see progress, even in the way of knocking down walls and such, but we won't miss the plaster dust and all that came with it, namely wearing respirators and other protective gear.

Jack is on Spring Break, so this week we are really going to make some progress. A friend lent us a giant Shop Vac, and I have been busy cleaning up all of the dust that was left behind from the destruction. We have also been able to open windows, some that I'm sure haven't been opened in years, to let some fresh air in. It's been lovely. Jack has been busy with plumbing, and will move on to electrical later in the week. The whole house needs new plumbing and electrical, so this is quite the chore. He had hoped to work on the roof this week, but the weather won't allow it. The thawing of the snow on the roof and the rainy weather really emphasizes the roof leak. Our friend Tim is coming over this week to help Jack patch it temporarily. That will be a big relief.

We've had to make a lot of decisions before he could work on plumbing and electrical, like what size shower do we want, and where do we put it, do we want a utility sink in our laundry room, and so on. It wouldn't seem like these would be so hard to answer, but they are big decisions, and once it's done, that's final. We did end up moving the downstairs bathroom so it's off the mud room instead of off the kitchen. It's smaller than the other bathroom would have been, but we feel like it was the right decision. We've also moved some things around in the kitchen so that we have a more open layout. I don't like to feel cramped while working in the kitchen, so this was important to me. The kitchen seems to be the hub of activity, especially with three boys who are growing quickly and seem to be hungry every hour or two. With that in mind, we made a closet into a walk in pantry, which will be great to have for extra grocery storage. We also decided to use one of the bedrooms upstairs to make a master bath and walk in closet. I really hated to use up a bedroom space, but we will finish off the attic into a living area, and it's not like we're lacking for personal space in this house. Jack was able to frame in the closet this week, and things are starting to take shape.

It's really exciting to see progress, especially of the rebuilding kind. I'm so thankful for Jack's expertise and work ethic. Even though it's a huge project, we are excited about it together, and that makes the hard labor much more rewarding.