Reno Update 1: Demo Has Begun + Our Plans!

Demo has begun!! If the picture above wasn’t a jump scare for you, I envy your level headedness. I knew they were taking the roof off of the house but for some reason this isn’t what I was expecting! Here are some other pictures of the demo process:

It has been pretty cool to see the old wood and other materials/techniques that were used 100 years ago. I understand why these houses are so sturdy and it’s kind of sad to see the old materials go. However, my contractor is doing his best to save as much trim and wood work as possible to use in the reno so we won’t lose the character of the old house!

One of the biggest questions I got when I posted on Instagram about the reno was “what exactly are you doing?,” so here is a quick overview. I won’t share our actual plans just for safety reasons, but I will share some videos once framing starts and it’s easier to picture what we’re doing. Here’s the plan:

• We are taking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room to create a slightly more open floor plan in the main living area.
• My former office, which was downstairs off of our primary bedroom (which was the original “parlor” from the 1920’s) will become a primary bathroom!
• Our former bathroom, which was our primary bathroom and the bathroom guests used when they were over will become a powder bath.
• We are fixing our wonky stairs so that they are safer once we have kids.
• Upstairs is where the big changes are happening. We are taking off the whole roof to reconfigure it.
• We will be going from 2 upstairs bedrooms to 3 and a large loft area. We will still have a bathroom upstairs for these 3 bedrooms, but it will be slightly smaller and more efficient than the old bathroom.
• Last is storage! We are going from having 3 closets total in the entire house to having 8 closets (and an additional one outside)!!!!! I am unreasonably excited for this much storage.

We will also be making other changes as we go to bring the house up to modern standards. Think things like replacing the knob and tub wiring, updating the upstairs heating and cooling to an actual HVAC system, and adding insulation. We can’t wait to see this now shell of a house come back together into our forever home!