Happy Holidays 2009!

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas! The picture above is the closest we were able to get to a family pic for this year with our tree.

Some of our outtakes are in the album below.

Day Eighteen: Little Rocks

Today we needed to move all the little rocks left from where we jacked out the slab so only sand was left.



Sweetness told me to think of the day's work as a glamerous day at the beach playing in the sand. It was nothing of the sort!

In the video below, we lay out as the plan for the day.

Next, we check in on Sweetness (bel0w) and his new contraption.

In the video below, we show you all the work we did today. Six hours and countless wheelbarrow trips into the day, we actually did move all those little rocks to the dumpter.

The slideshow below shows some pictures we took today:

Day Seventeen: Good Bye, Jack Hammer

Today we share our plan to finish the jackhammering and offer you a final chance to see our sunken concrete slab.

As you can see in the video below, we've come a LONG way since Day Ten when we posted, "Uh, What are we Going to Do with this Concrete???" after a miserably failed attempt to use a sledgehammer to break it up.

Our wrap up for today is posted below. Join us in saying, "Goodbye, Sledge Hammer!!"

Ed says concrete weighs about 145lbs per cubic square foot. We think that means we've moved 23 thousand pounds of concrete. DANG!!!

Here's a sample of what we used to see when we opened the front door (pre-demo):

NOW- Take a look at a snapshot from the same vantage point:

Here is the photo album from today:

Day Sixteen: Whose Idea was this Jackhammer anyways?!

Day Sixteen begins:

Here's a shot of the Man in action:

I couldn't help but fire up the camera and ask Sweetness a few questions mid-day:

The wrap up is posted below:

And lastly, here is the conclusion of Day Sixteen:

This is a slideshow of a few pics we took:

Day Fifteen: Rock Moving

Day Fifteen begins!

With reluctance, our Man with the Plan allows me to tape him with his new safety hat on:

As you'll see in our pictures below, we had very special guests visiting today!!

Danielle's comment was that so far she's seen a lot to indicate Sweetness is good at destruction but nothing to indicate Sweetness is good at creation YET!

Brenda's comment was that when she saw our posting "We've Got A Live One", she couldn't help but think an electrical fire might be the best thing that could happen to this house.

Our wrapup video is below. If you are not impressed with our progress, then you have obviously never spent a day moving rocks.

Lastly, here are some pictures.

Day Fourteen: Lovin' the Jackhammer

Day 14 begins with the Man with the Plan telling us the what we'll do today:

What he didn't say as a part of today's plan, is it means he uses the machine while I tread back & forth with rocks in a wheel barrow from the house to the dumpster. When he sneaks away for a break, I decided to take a shot with the jackhammer as you see in the video below.

OK, I'll admit, I can hold my own when it comes to pulling down walls (Day Tw0) or ripping out bathrooms (Day Four) or even kicking out plaster (Day Six), but when it comes to pulling up a SIXTY FIVE pound jackhammer over and over, I'm nothing compared to The Man.

Check him out in action below:

I had to leave to to work before the day was done, so Sweetness shows us in the video below everything done on Day 14.

Here is a slideshow of a couple pics we snapped.

HINT: Use the options on the bottom of the slideshow to display the captions or pause the pictures.

We would love you hear from you. Have you ever used a jackhammer before??????

Day Thirteen: We've Got a Jackhammer!!!

If you saw Day 10, we don't have to tell you why we needed to put down the sledgehammer and pick up a pneumatic one.

I had to work today, so it was just the Man and his Machine at the house.

Day Twelve: Beams on the Workshop

The picture above is a "before" picture of the workshop in case you've been lucky enough to forget what a disaster it was the day we closed on the house.


We dropped my brother off at the airport to send him home to snowy Wyoming, then headed to the house to begin Day Twelve. We share the plan for the day in the video below.

Here is an action shot of Sweetness TCOB (Takin' Care of Bus'ness):

And here is an action shot of me TCOB:

And in the video below, we wrap up Day Twelve:

Day 11.8: More Roof Work

Day 11.8 will be a short day to wrap up the demo of the roof above the workshop.

Sweetness came home last night, and he is impressed by what we've done. In fact, he is so impressed he wants to work on demoing the roof above the carport this weekend.

We wrap up day 11.8 below.

Day 11.6: More Roof Work

Day 11.6 (partial day) begins! In the video below, we share the plan for the day. I keep trying to get a green light on using the big saw, and I keep getting denied.

I've really got to get over being disgusted by EVERY nook and cranny in which we find temites eating this house, but you'll see in the video below I'm not there yet.

Day 11.6 ends below. We almost got the roof off the workshop. I have been telling Sweetness the last three days while he is out of town we have been landscaping, so we are excited to show him what we did instead.

Day 11.4: More Roof Work

Sweetness is still out of town, so my brother, Zach, & I returned to the scene of our crime to discuss next steps for our plan to take the roof off the workshop.

In the video below, we do a mid-action check-in:

And here is a wrap up for the day:

Day 11.2: Fiddling on the Roof

Fortunately, My brother , Zach, is in town all week. I'm taking off work early each day so we can squeeze some work each afternoon.

Unfortunately, Sweetness had to leave for a business trip through Wednesday night. He told Zach & I to work on the yard while he is away. Zach & I decided our assignment of plant digging reflected an under-estimation of our capabilities.

SO, we decided instead to try a new approach for the concrete busting (we ordered an air compressor, two 50' hoses & two 65 lb. air hammers) we expect to be delivered on Wednesday morning & searched for a good use of our talents until the goods arrive. The video below shows us pondering our options for a mini-day today.

In the video below, we check in on Zach's progress. The picture on the left shows the outside of the workshop before we started working on it.

And here is the first wrap-up for the day (below).

WAIT! That wrap up was weak! We need Arnold to give us a manly wrap-up:

On a side note, we ended our day becuase the sun was going down. It's fairly cloudy and windy because there is a hurricane blowing into the Gulf. If you have any tips on how to get those planks up, we're all ears. They are attached to rotten wood, so it's a little tough to pull them up.

On a final note, the link below will show you a couple of pictures we snapped today.

http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayEleven2?authkey=Gv1sRgCODlg_KQwPeVMw&feat=email#

Day Ten: Uh, How We Gonna' Get this Concrete Out?

Look what the cat drug in. It's my brother from Wyoming! This is exactly what he looked like when we picked him up at the airport (at 10:30 at night). We call this look Miami Vice meets Mountain Man.



It's already winter in his home state of Wyoming. In fact, they had a weekend where they got 16" of snow dumped on them a couple of weeks ago, hence, the winter beard. We'll see how long it lasts in the heat and humidity of Florida.

In the video below, we are pleased to include Zach as a part of our demo team for Day Ten.

We got the Miami-Vice-Mountain-Man all geared up with safety google, gloves & a sledge hammer, and started the camera rolling. Check out the video below to see what happened. (Note: In case you haven't heard it, my brother does a great Arnold Schwarzenegger impression).

To spare him further shame, we gave him a few minutes to figure out how the heck to bust out concrete out before starting the camera again in the clip below.

Not long after I turned the camera off from the clip above, things got quiet. Too quiet. I try to find out why in the video below.

After the video above, we asked ourselves, "Uh, how we gonna get this concrete out?"

While pondering it, the boys decided to join me in the yard for yard demo.

We made a video to wrap up the day, but it's too large to upload to this site.

You can see some pics we took with this link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayTen?authkey=Gv1sRgCKn2u82i34KJEQ&feat=email#

Day Nine: Demo of the Den is DONE!

Day Nine of Demo was a half day. We wanted to finish the demo of the den, but we couldn't work too much today since we have to prepare for my little brother to come for a week & help with the house. (Just taking the time to stock up enough food for him can take an afternoon!)

A quick video that shows what we're planning to do for Day Nine is below.

You might notice our Big Daddy Dumpster is gone. They came to pick it up during the week after we packed it to it's fullest last weekend. In its place, we have a little Junior dumpster we're excited to start filling up.

The video below wraps up our day.

Ever since Sweetness started accumulating tools when we bought this house, he's been eager to use them. He's even asked me if he can use his nail gun on our coffee table.

I suppose we see his patience to use his tools on the house is running out, as I caught him taking some wood out of the dumpster & confront him in the wrap-up.

Lastly, here are a few pictures we snapped through the day.

http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayNine?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ7g2OqE9O3x3AE&feat=email#

Thanks very much to all of you that have shared your comments with us! We really love to hear from you, so don't be strangers!

Happy Birthday, Sweetness!!!!

Today is a cause for celebration, as it was thirty-three years ago today the world was introduced to the man I've affectionately come to know as "Sweetness". YES, that is him in the pic below. In fact, he still gives me that face sometimes!!!

(Dearest Lynda, thank you for this picture! I treasure it!!)

Pictured below with his happy smile and birthday booty, I can't help but take this opportunity to say that when you look at this picture- you are looking at the best thing that has ever happened to me.

All he requested for his birthday was a "mister for the hose" so he can cool off while he demolishes our much-aligned-wreck-of-a-"house", but I'm happy to say the girls and I upped the ante by offering gifts of tool boxes with lots of fun little things to go inside, the Florida Building Codes (he said he wanted it!) & some of the items at Home Depot he lingers when he passes such as a FaxMax laser level and Heavy Duty 2 Peak HP Combo Router kit.

To explain- I call him Sweetness because he finds at least one sweet, thoughtful thing to do for me each day whether it's buying me extra special & wide shoes for my monster-feet or always making a point to carry the heaviest bags of groceries.

Please join me in wishing him a Happy Birthday as well as your well wishes for whatever the days in the next year may bring our way.

Day Eight: Demo of the Den Part II

The den is huge. It seems almost as if it has as many square feet as all the rest of the house we spent six days tearing apart.

The pic below shows the den in its original state the day we closed on the house.

Day Eight begins with an introduction as to what we plan to do to keep tearing it apart.

We caught a few action shots today. The first one (below) shows what we had to do to finish off the demo of all the windows since they were still full of THICK plaster in each pane. You'll see more in this clip, but it's an awful lot of banging and chiseling to get those cleared up.

I mention the 80/20 rule in this clip since it seems the last 20% bit of the work is taking as much time to complete as the first 80% we've done in days past.

Our second action shot shows Sweetness pulling down more ceilings. He told me his favorite tool today was his "bare hands".

And here are the pictures we took along the way through the day: http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayEight?authkey=Gv1sRgCICRpbPFnY6VNA&feat=email#

We've Got a Live One

Oooops. The pictures from Day Seven end with a burned mark in the carpet.

This video explains what happened after the cameras stopped rolling on our day of demo in the den.

Long story short, Sweetness saves the day and turns off the SECOND box of electrical before we leave to go home.

Day Seven: Demo of the Den

See that beauful little orange cord going into our house? It's a beautiful site to us, as it's pumping in our neighbor's juice to power two fans they brought over since we have no electricity to be safe for demolition.

Sweetness made a few mid-week trips this week. There's less than a hour between the time he gets off work and the time the sun goes down on weekdays, so it's hard to get much done.

He's like a kid in a candy store with this house. In this clip, he tells us what he's been up to during his little mid-week trips.

The clip below is a clip from the middle of today, our seventh day of demolition.

Today's demo session wraps up in the dumpster below.




We also snapped some shots along the way today. Here is a link to the album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DaySeven?authkey=Gv1sRgCOjh5qu98PvA5QE&feat=email#

In tomorrow's postings, we'll include more information in the last picture.

Walk It Like you Talk It

When it comes to home renovations, there are a couple of different approaches that can be taken.

Approach #1- Might involve as much as grabbing the yellow pages & turning to the section for "General Contractor" while buying extra memory for the camera.

Approach #2- While others (we'll call them "Real Men") open their toolboxes and roll up their sleeves.

We realize those people with little tools and pansies to plant might prefer Approach #1, so this bonus posting on our blog has been created to show them what it might be like if/when they grow up to be Real Men.

Below, we've posted a shot of the work in progress. (Hint: if you are too scared to even bother buying a big saw, it's likely a blessing in disguise you don't have one as it can do some real damage)

Lastly, based on popular demand, we've posted the end-of-day wrap up below (and, yes, it includes an appearance of the dumpster).

Imitation = Flattery

They say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

They also say "the nut doesn't fall far from the tree"

I don't know if either of those statements are true, but I do know my Dad & step-mom Karen have posted a video to Youtube in which I would say he is mocking Ed & I if I didn't know better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGnUNPpLWkg

I've watched this a few times, and I'm still not sure whether to laugh or cry.

By the way- Watch our Intro to Day Five before you watch this.

Day Six: Living Room Demo

Today is the 6th day of Demo on the house, and today's goal is simply to tear apart the living room as we've already done in the bedrooms. Ed gives a quick overview here as we show the way it looks before our work begins.




In this video, I catch Sweetness taking down the ceiling. He is a stud. My job of taking down the walls was tough, but his job of reaching up all day while stuff came crashing down onto him was tougher.



Later in the day, I'm in the process of smashing out the living room wall & I hear glass break. I realized I was breaking the mirrored shelves in the den (what used to be a window was made into an enclave shelf), so I went into the den to pick up the mirror.

If you know Ed & me at all, I don't need to tell you he was not thrilled about my plan. He was afraid I would either hurt myself by not being able to kick out layers of concrete & drywall at all, or that I would hurt myself by getting my foot stuck.




Today's final video shows all the work done today.




Lastly, here are a few pics snapped along the way today.

http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DaySix?authkey=Gv1sRgCPyq-52O9dGGxQE&feat=email#

Th

Day Five: We have a Dumpster!

With two weekends of rest behind us, it was time to get back down to business today.

Many of you have asked, "What 'cha 'gonna do with all that junk?". The Man with the Plan tells us in his overview of the plan for Day Five.




And here is our end of day wrap up:



We've got a few pics posted, too:
http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayFive?authkey=Gv1sRgCNKKv52-l7mRQw&feat=email#

Boy Howdie! Demo is a lot of work and we need a break!

So we completed four days of demo & decided it was time for some rest!

We took a week and a half off to go to a wedding of a dear friend in California, followed by a trip to visit my old stompin' grounds in Oklahoma, concluded wtih a trip up to Colorado to ride some dirt bikes with my family.

Day Four: Celing Demo

Day Four: The plan for today is shared.

Day Three: Kitchen Demo

The instructions are given for Day Three:

And here's a mid-day shot of the action

These are a few pics we snapped of Day Three: http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayThree?authkey=Gv1sRgCOWO-7Tjsv3_Nw&feat=email#

Day Two: Plaster, meet my Hammer

This is the begining of Day Two where The Man With the Plan gives out our assignments.

This is the Mid-Day Money Shot for Day Two:

And here is the Day Two Wrap-Up:

Here are a few pics from Day Two:

http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayTwo?authkey=Gv1sRgCPij0aW69PaZoAE#

Day One: Bedroom Demo

Thanks to the magic of technology, we are able to show you what will be happening on Day One of our work in the future when our permitting is complete.

We reckon we might include knocking down walls as a part of the first day.






Here is a post by Ed- Day One Wrap Up.




And here is a Day One Recap from Lindsey:
(forgive the poor lighting since the house has the electricity turned off for demo)






And lastly, a few pics. Don't quit peeking early; you'll miss the termites!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/DayOne?authkey=Gv1sRgCMfLk_v2xa6HHQ#

Tour of the House

The "Before" Pics

Here is a link to pictures of the house on the day we closed.

http://picasaweb.google.com/picsoflindsey/HomeSweetHome?authkey=Gv1sRgCNGa9N7c3JO3hgE&feat=email

Secret Weapons

We know rennovating a house can be a big job. These two are our secret weapons.