Day 1 was a BIG ONE

The guys were all supposed arrive before 8am but didn't end up starting until around 9:30 which was okay with me since I only slept about 4 hours last night. The other 4 hours were spent tossing and turning with my mind going about 100 mph as I got EVEN MORE excited about the project. That's just the way things go I guess.

When the guys arrived they immediately began to attack the wall between the dining room and kitchen much to my enjoyment:) I have dreamed of seeing it gone and I nearly teared up when I peeked in and saw they had removed about a foot from the bottom of the wall and I could see light pouring through from the other side. It was just as drastic as I had imagined. It took them about 30 minutes to get it down to the studs as they had to remove 2 layers of this thick cement board. I always thought we had plaster walls but it turns out otherwise. The studs took an additional 20 minutes minus a couple boards that are very strongly attached to the ceiling.

After that I ran out for lunch since my fridge was hardly accessible and scratched a couple things off my to-do list while my sweet mother-in-law had Turner for the day. When I arrived home a couple hours later the cabinets were all gone and the lack of insulation in our kitchen walls was exposed. Quite disappointing yet not surprising. I was relieved to see how spacious the space felt with the 2 rooms made into 1. We had debated about whether or not we needed to extend the back of our house to give us a bigger kitchen but we concluded it just wasn't necessary and we could make much better use of the existing space to give us what we need.

The guys took off at 4:00 which was just fine with the dogs who were excited to get their backyard back for the evening. By the end of the day I was pleasantly surprised and fascinated with the craftsmanship in which our house was built 70 years ago. The weights in the windows were visible when the trim was removed and left me in awe that people actually used to make windows like that.

Thus far, this is not as stressful as I thought it would be. We'll see how it goes tomorrow when I have my precious (and very curious) daughter toddling around this scene of destruction. I pray she'll be able to get some sort of nap in her pack n' play in our upstairs bathroom. I'll crank her noisemaker up as loud as it will go!

On the agenda for tomorrow:
1. Install french doors in the dining room
2. Replace the kitchen window with a larger, more efficient one that actually opens and closes
3. Wall off the current kitchen door