That Time It Was Raining Money.....

I should preface this by saying we have never found anything of real value in the houses we've renovated.  We've searched attics, basements, pried up the medallion on the newel post - and all we ever find is dirt, dust and mouse poop.

So imagine my surprise when the demo crew showed me the packages of cash they found when ripping down the dining room ceiling!!  Money, falling from the ceiling, amazing and over $700!

I promptly called the estate's executor to give them the news.  They were so relieved it was found.  They knew their parents had stashed away some money, but had tried in vain to find it before the house was sold. And they were very kind to provide a reward to the demo crew for finding it (and the demo crew was very kind to have turned it over instead of keeping it!).

What else did we find?  Well, more wallpaper!!!  There was a lot that was easily visible, but behind cabinets and trim,















we have found even more wallpaper.  I think this house is breaking some kind of record.  11 different patterns!

And as the demo crew started opening up the walls, I got a glimpse of how this place will look with the renovations.  See these walls?  They are going away!

And the new open floor plan is beginning to emerge.  Look how removing the wall to the old front entrance hall opens up the living room and brings the sunlight in!

See, I'm not the only woman on the job site this time!!!

The wall on the right will be removed after we install a new load bearing beam 

And the dining room?  Well it's starting to tie into the open floor plan.

The wall between the kitchen and dining room is gone!!

And the kitchen!!!  Well it's changing a lot!  We will need to gut the walls to install all new electrical and plumbing. 

This is the first floor bedroom and bath.  It's getting completely gutted so we can open up the space for a new cathedral ceiling and brand new bath.

What else did we find?  Well, the house has all knob and tube wiring.  Not a surprise, but still a bit shocking to see it thorough out the home. 

(and don't you love the mother of pearl button switches?  Sadly, we can't reuse them, they're not up to modern building code).

Did we get any bad news during demo?  Unfortunately yes.  As they started to pull up the vinyl flooring, we heard a telltale 'crack' as a piece snapped back.  Asbestos tends to make flooring brittle and when we had it tested, it turns out there is 4% asbestos content.  That means we have to do full abatement to have it removed.  

And in other bad news, as the weather turned colder, we realized that many of the newer replacement windows have compromised seals - so we will need to replace the windows.  My bought guess is 40% of the windows are bad and it doesn't make sense to piecemeal in new ones - so we will have to replace them all for a cohesive look.  

Sigh.... the cha ching cha ching sounds are reverberating in my brain.  We haven't even started building yet, but I figure this puts me $15,000 over budget.  Yikes, that's a tough start and there are sure to be more surprises!  I'll be sharpening my pencil to figure this one out.

What's next?  Well we need to put in new beams to support the walls we're removing and create a true open floor plan.

Stay tuned!

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