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As soon as the asbestos tiles were gone (day 1), we began the demolition process.

The plan was to go there as soon as Jeph got out of work on day 2 and start tearing down walls. My body decided to rebel with a fever, chills, sore throat, and all that good stuff. So, those first few days Jeph would run back to the apartment after work, check on me (on the sofa and out of commission), change into grubby clothes, and spend hours in the cold and dark hammering away at the unwanted walls.

All electrical outlets on those walls had to be secured out of the way for safety. By the time I arrived there were shockingly large piles of debris strewn about and it looked like a bomb had hit. Part of me wanted to run away because the reality of what we had just bitten off was now visually illustrated. No turning back from this one, though. The washer, dryer, dishwasher, and fridge were all dragged outside to the carport. (Sidenote: the roof soffits needs to be worked on and currently drips all along the walkway when there is any precipitation/thawing. This led to dangerous walking conditions as the dripping froze into thick ice.)

The original plan was to leave the kitchen cabinets/sink in place; while not pretty, they were funcional. I got to thinking about the new floor, though, and how if no floor was installed where the cabinets sat, we’d be limited, when updating the kitchen, to that same footprint. Who wants to be limited? So, after some grumbling from Jeph (one more thing to tear out, one more thing to buy…) the cabinets came out.

Same with the ugly, cream colored, vent hood. That left the one-of-a-kind hanging/floating shelves which we both loved. Problem was, they were minimally useful and maximally geared towards head banging. After two days of that, they too (with a pang of guilt) got pulled. My lobbying to take down the wall between the kitchen and entry hall was unsuccessful. Rightfully so as we need some wall space for shelves/cabinets and refrigerator. We also left about 33” of the wall big wall; just enough to give the fridge a nook.

We got really lucky that our friend, Julian, had some time between jobs, and iron man competitions, for us to hire him. He’s got great experience and skills and contributed a ton to the project. It was also helpful to have someone else around to keep us on the right track.

Thanks to Jeph the door now functions well. The closet sliding doors and metal bar were removed so it can become a mini “mudroom” (good idea from sister Sue.) That pig iron bar did not want to move and took a big chunk of wall out with it (gratefully patched by brother-in-law Tim.)

The big items our excellent electrician, James Duffy, and team did were pulling out the old fuse box and replacing it with a new 200 amp breaker box along with installing a new service point to the outside of the home. Beyond that, just about every room had some electrical work done (*detailed in each section.) Above and around the new breaker box the wall had to be opened up to access the wiring, and remove the old box. It’s a mess and there’s not an easy solution for covering it. Probably a job for a carpenter. Beyond the aesthetics of it, once it’s covered we need to have the electrical inspection; luckily we have one year to do it.