Demolition Begins!

Finally. After nine years of talking about and planning to renovate this house, something big is finally being done to get us to our goal. Sure, we updated the kitchen early on. Removed a wall, replaced the flooring, painted the cabinets, added some counter space, updated all of the appliances. But that was on the cheap, and it was because the kitchen was oh so unbearable when we moved in. Oh, and we replaced the toilets in the bathrooms to save some water. But...that's about it. We didn't want to do much, as we knew if our big plans came to fruition, anything we did would just be wasted money, torn up and removed. And, the barn restoration was completed earlier this year to free up some time. On to the next project.

The plans have been finalized. In Phase I, a new 14'x37' addition with livable space will go on the north side of the house (left in the pictures). A covered front porch off the west side. The entry door to the house will move.  An existing bathroom in the house will be removed and turned into a hallway to the new addition. In Phase II, the entire interior layout of the existing house will be changed. The kitchen moves into the opposite corner and most of the bedrooms get moved around. The only thing staying put is the living room and utility room. 

But back to now...this is the real official start of construction. The first thing standing in our way is this little porch on the back of the house. This little porch leads to our entry door, which takes you right smack into the utility room with the furnace, water heater and washer/dryer. Definitely not ideal. 

Our new plans call for a new much larger front porch going from the corner of the house, thirty feet across and overlapping to where this porch is now. So out it goes. 

It took just a weekend from start to finish. It came down rather easily. A couple of hammers and crowbars with a little reciprocating saw action thrown in for good measure had it down in no time. I saved some of the roof shingles from the porch and was able to weave them into the existing house roof and make it look like a porch was never there. Well, almost. Some really old and what looks to be original siding was hidden behind the porch. And the porch floor and foundation are still there. Two truckloads of debris to the landfill cleaned everything up. 

Our overhead electrical service to the house is right in way of our new addition. So we'll get an electrician and the local power company out here soon to temporarily relocate it to the front of the house. 

We've hired an excavator to remove the porch foundation, dig new footings for the new porch and addition, and pour the footings. After that, it's all DIY.

This should be fun.