House Renovation

Our wonderful home was built in 1979 when it was believed to put as many walls in a house as possible. Our home is very well built and we love it very much but we decided when we moved in that someday this wall would be gone. Well, the time finally came when we were able to take that wall down and start our home renovation. (In this picture you can also see Rudy. He is my brothers and sister-in-laws dog that we were able to babysit while they were on vacation.)

This is the wonderful man who did all of the electrical for us. We could not of done this renovation without him. And the other man there is my dad. He led the wrecking crew who took down the wall. He worked so hard that day that he ended up with a lot of cramps that evening. God Bless you Dad! And by the way, the wrecking crew consisted of me, Mr. G, and my brother.

Here Dad is as we are just getting started. He is taking off the beautiful brown 1970s trim on the bottom of the wall. It wasn't an easy task.

Finally we were able to start in on the wall. Here is my brother and my dad. We have just taken the first huge chunk out of the wall. This is when the mess really started. Because the house was built in 1979 it was a plaster covered wall. This made the work a bit harder and a bit messier. But, thankfully my uncle let us borrow his truck to load up the mess and haul it off.

Now, this isn't just any ole truck. If you look real close you will see a name on the drivers door. It says "Orville Boldt, Woodlawn, IL." Orville Boldt was my grandpa, but he passed away when I was only about 6 or 7. He was a great man and I miss him even though I don't remember much about him. My dad and my grandma have shared many stories about him and I look forward to someday getting to chat with him in heaven. But this is his truck and I thought it was priceless to see my dad driving his dads old truck.

Back inside we were continuing the tear down. That huge piece I am pulling was one of the biggest chunks of wall we tore off. The only other one that was bigger was pulled off by my brother and he kindly informed me of that. What a good brother he is.

Here I am with my brother carrying out part of the mess. You can see the 1970s wallpaper that used to hang in our kitchen. Seeing that reminded me of all the other wonderful families who had once called this place their home. I bet everyone of those families wished this wall was taken out too.

Unfortunately, my brother suffered an injury during the process. He tried to kick down the wall and when his foot went through the plaster he fell forward where he was pierced in the hand by a nail. This took us away from our work for about 30 minutes so that we could console my brother. He now believes that he understands a bit of what Jesus went through when he was crucified because he too had a nail in his hand. My brother believes that the Lord was sending us a message especially since this happened on a Friday. My brother informed us that when we went looking for him Sunday morning in his room, he would not be there. I maybe don't need to tell you this, but my brother is very dramatic.

VERY DRAMATIC!!!

Anyway, back to the renovation. It was already looking great and we had only been working for about 2 hours at this point. My brother unfortunately, had to leave because our mom said he had to go get a tetanus shot. I informed him that Jesus never needed a tetanus shot.

Finally Mr. G arrives and we start taking down the wall together. What you can't tell by the picture is how hot it is in our house at this time. We had to turn the air conditioner off so that plaster didn't get circulated through out the house. We were both hot, sweaty, and smelly at this time, but we were having a blast.

He is so cute when he works and he loved using that SawZaw. Nice work Mr. G.

This is a picture taken from our dining room into our living room. Just a few hours ago you only would've seen a wall, but now you can see into the living room and out the window. We are already pleased with the renovation and the process isn't finished yet. In fact, we have lots left to do with finishing the ceiling, painting, adding laminate, and changing the trim. There will be many more house renovation updates to come. And in case you were worried, my brother is doing fine. He has had a full recovery from his injury, however, he does remember the experience as a life and death situation.