Tearing Down the House

[DR Buck]

It's "Demo Day"   8)     We started the demo work on our new 1875 house.    Before we can start renovations to the main part of the house we need to remove several kludged on first floor rooms.   These rooms were all added at various time since the original house construction.   Some of them were built with what ever material they had laying around at the time.    The downside of this is these room support some very necessary things such as the kitchen, the laundry room, and most important, indoor plumbing.   :D    One of the rooms also houses our well and pump for water.   The well is hand dug and will be filled in as we just had 2 new wells drilled (another thread).   

I've already installed a temporary bathroom with all of the necessities on the 2nd floor in a room that will become the permanent new bathroom.    The kitchen is a different story though.    It's going to be microwave, grill or hot plate if it needs to be cooked and I plan on moving the existing sink into the "dining room" in another temporary installation so we have water.    As a fall back, we do have full facilities in or camper if we need them.

All of these rooms will be replaced with a new single story addition built over a full basement.  All in all we are removing about 1200 sq feet of living space and then adding back on 2000 sq feet, gaining 800 additional sq feet not counting the basement.   As of today we have 17 days before it all has to be gone so the builder can start.    Here are some photos of the project.....

This is the starting point   All of the single story will be removed.




We started inside ripping down the finished walls in the laundry room which was added much later that I had guessed, and found messages.






I started removing all of the siding off the back.   It will all be replaced as we are changing the color.




This is the well/pump room.   I need to wait until the new wells are connected next week before I can tear this out as we are still using it as our water source. 




The I got serious.   This is the state as of yesterday.

[Magicman]

I see many hours of planning and work ahead but the reward will be worth it.

Those written notes are a treasure and good pictures will preserve them.  Sharing the pictures with the previous owners would be special if you can identify and locate them.

[Randy88]

Its customary in my area to remove the bathroom medicine cabinet and have everyone who has worked on the house, sign and date the wall, then put the medicine cabinet back in again, so over the years, decades and even centuries, everyone's name is there along with a date.

[moresnow]

Its customary in my area to remove the bathroom medicine cabinet and have everyone who has worked on the house, sign and date the wall, then put the medicine cabinet back in again, so over the years, decades and even centuries, everyone's name is there along with a date.

Hmmm. Been meaning to replace our old med cabinet for a long time. Better have a look. See if that's a Ia. wide routine?

[DR Buck]

Its customary in my area to remove the bathroom medicine cabinet and have everyone who has worked on the house, sign and date the wall, then put the medicine cabinet back in again, so over the years, decades and even centuries, everyone's name is there along with a date.

Well all I found behind the medicine cabinet was a dead electric wire from a previous renovation.    :D

[Randy88]

moresnow, when we did the remodel on my dads house, both the general contractor and my dad told me about it, thought they were pulling my leg, till we pulled the medicine cabinet out and there on the wall were all the names written when the house was built, so everyone signed it who helped this time around.    

When the remodel was done I asked the general contractor again if its common practice, he told it depended on the home owner, but in all the remodeling he'd ever done, most had done this and most houses he'd remodeled had names written on the wall behind the medicine cabinet.