Thursday

 

The demolition guys arrived before 8:00 a.m. They've put down protection for the floors, bagged our lights, moved the refrigerator into the vacant dining room, and began removing cabinets. They said our cabinets and countertops were ugly. No joke. The owner came by to take a look at their progress. Our neighbors sent congratulatory texts.

Toby handled everything in stride. He only barked a few times at the beginning, but he settled down and enjoyed his new apartment. He found a sunny spot in the sunroom this morning while I had coffee.

By noon, they had filled up their dump trailer. We took Toby in the golf cart downtown to have a blackened grouper at Carver's. We figured that would burn off some time. Toby did really well at the outdoor restaurant. He stayed put most of the time. There was another small dog on the patio that kept his attention.

The workers quit about 2:30 to take our stuff to the dump. They capped the water and any electricals. They cut the backsplash with the wallboard attached. 

They said it's easier and faster to replace the wallboard than to try and remove each tile without damaging the wallboard.

 They haven't cut down the bar wall yet. Even though it will be shorter, it has to stay because the floor tile runs up to it but not under it. We don't have any replacement tile, so the wall stays. Just shorter than before. It will make the countertop deeper, so it's okay. There will be a foot overhang beyond the wall.

They haven't yet cut through the wall. We are excited to see that. 

We did get to inspect the vent duct that used to be attached to the microwave.

I can see how a ceiling vent can be attached if the blower is located in the attic. But they will still have to build a small cabinet for the 6 inch vent to go up and make a 90 degree turn and then another 90 degree turn up and transition to a 10 x 3 rectangular vent like you see above. That cabinet will be visible in the living room because it will be resting on the shelf, shown below. We'll know more how that might look once we see the wall opened up.

They are going to need to reroute some electrical outlets and remove telephone and cable wires.

The ironing board got removed. When we don't own an iron, it's a little ridiculous to have an ironing board. Our designer said we'd be surprised how much cleaner it will look to have it gone.

They made more progress than they expected today, making it to the laundry room.

More work to do tomorrow. 

Our garage has one car, one golf cart, 4 bicycles, boxes of junk, and ladders and yard equipment. Today, they added our washer and dryer to the garage. It's tight, but we're making it work.

I added painter's tape to the sunroom sliders to remind Toby (and John) that the doors are closed. We were able to watch them work through the glass whenever we were in the sunroom. Sectioning off the house made it easy to coexist today, especially since they left the front door and laundry room door and garage door open all day to make it easier to come and go. We are glad that they're aren't doing this in the heat of August. The high today was a comfortable 75 degrees.

They put down Masonite floor protectors in their work areas and made a pathway to the door. 

I swept (after they swept), vacuumed, and cleaned the floor under the fridge and stove. 

The floors were disgusting. The original builder used bathroom tile under the range to lift it up. Our renovators will do the same thing for the fridge since it will be sliding away from the wall in the picture above by about 16 inches. There will be a pull-out pantry between the wall and fridge to allow room for the freezer door to open without hitting the wall.