Woodlawn Remodel Update, Week 3

It’s started! I could run through the streets singing! Welcome to week 3 of crazytown, ahem, I mean our renovation on this old house we call home. It feels like it took forever to get to this point. We started dreaming about the project, (I should say ‘I’…I started dreaming, my husband started hyperventilating), 11 months ago! But with multiple design iterations, budget planning, loan closings and town permiting we officially started 3 weeks ago with the removal of the old carriage house.

It had been completely unsalvageable. It was rotted and the whole structure would move when you pushed on the walls. Not good with little kiddos running around. Part of our design plan for this remodel will be attaching a two+ car garage to the main house via a mudroom.

This week started with a bang. The excavator rolled off the truck, the sweet guys took the boys for a ride a few times and then they started sawing off the back side of the house after boarding up the doors. It had been about a week and a half prior to this of slowly moving pipes and plumbing, the kitchen cabinets and dishwasher into the dining room, which has turned into our makeshift kitchen.

What I had not expected was them to almost completely disassemble the backside of the house in preparation for demo. They took out plaster walls, all the tile, doors, etc and then pulled it down.

And believe it or not, that big excavator sneakily tore down the backside of the house without me even noticing while I was upstairs putting babies down for naps. You’d think it would have been loud? I walked down the stairs, heard the excavator running and peeked out the window. And it was just a pile of rubble. My jaw hit the floor and luckily I had the where-with-all to ran outside and grab some pictures.

I was just so confused. Everyone has been telling us how solid this house is and how they “don’t build them like this anymore.” SO for it to come down so sneakily, well I guess that’s why you hire the right people.

I know that this is a big project with many moving parts and some could view it as a luxury or extravagance. And it is those things but it is also making our old home safe and livable and my heart is just bursting with gratitude. I know many dream of big renovations and we don’t want to take this opportunity lightly. We ultimately want our home to be a place where community can thrive and people can feel tangible love and kindness free of judgment and hurt. The doors are open folks. Come visit. Well not now unless you like dust. But you get the gist. I make a mean Joy tea in the morning but couldn’t figure out how to turn a coffee maker on to save my life. I promise to figure that out before you all come and visit.