Le Weekend du Demo

This weekend was unreal on the front of home progress!  We tore every scrap of siding off the back of the house, finished framing in our four windows, got all the sheathing perfected, AND tore out some cabinetry and finished making the hole between the two sides of our ex-duplex.  We had some very intrepid helpers, who we can't thank enough.  Like the below:

(That's our friend Jon, who is STOKED to be working 20 feet off the ground in a climbing harness in the rain.)  We seriously could not have done it without you guys, thank you to everyone.

So what did we do?  Well, this is our friend Stacy, getting angry on some tile.  (Kate and I had already removed the dishwasher.)

And this is Kate and Stacy, having successfully wrenched that recalcitrant cabinet from its old home.

We tore a hole in the drywall, and then had to resort to some kung fu to get the studs out.

Eventually, after lots of work and help from different people, we had this!:

From the other side:

 

 

OK, I know it doesn't look like much right now, but can I just tell you how exciting it is to be able to walk from one side of the house to the other without having to go outside?  It's totally awesome.  It's like we are like normal people (o.k., normal people don't normally have that much lathe showing in their hallways but whatever!)

What else did we do this weekend?  We turned this:

Into this:

Wheee!  OK, probably tearing the siding off your house in Seattle in October (a.k.a. the start of the rainy season) is not something most people would do.  However, we are adventurous.  We love life on the edge.  And the shingles need to go.  We managed to get some tar paper up this afternoon, but mostly we're counting on it not raining for the next 24 hours so we can finish the job.  Cross your fingers!

Do you notice another change in the photo above?  That's right, the window frames are done!  From:

To:

(We even now have sheathing in in-between the window frames.  V. exciting.)  

This is going to be great.  So much light!  So much windowness!  The windows are tall and skinny, which mimics the original period windows downstairs in Fred's bedroom and the living room.  They are custom all-wood, double-hung, double-paned, double-awesome windows from Cherry Creek windows in Seattle and if we're really lucky they'll be here this week.  YAY! 

Before the windows go in, we must have drywall.  We had a little visit from Hans the Drywall Man and he says he's going to talk with his guys and see if he can get someone out at the end of the week.  Maybe next week.  A visit with the drywall man feels like I imagine a visit with the obstetrician does.  Oh the anticipation!  The suspense!  The boring technical details and measurements!  Well anyway, we may have drywall soon.  Progress!