More juicy info on 'The House'

If you missed the original House aka. Money Pit post click here

When the man and I decided to purchase the connecting tract of land to our Landscape office, we immediately agreed that the old home which sat on the land would be demolished - pronto - no questions - that baby was history! We sealed the deal on the land in January 2010. Our plan was to demo the house and use the adjoining land (5.6 acres to be exact) to extend our business operations by allowing us more space for growth. As the days and months went on...we really started enjoying all of the "extra room" we had. Our office property was 2.5 acres and by adding the adjoining land it gave us right at 8 acres of land to roam. Our business is definitely a 'family-friendly' environment and our munchkins run about quite often. It was so nice to be able to let the munchkins run and play, explore, and have space. So our wheels began turning....we started to kinda, just a little bit...THINK about trying to salvage that old ranch-style home and call it home. It seemed a little absurd on one hand because it was definitely in need of a major overhaul, but on the other hand it seemed genius because our family could live and work on the same tract of land...allowing us and our family more together time on a beautiful piece of land.

After juggling all sorts of ideas around....demo the house and rebuild, have an architect draw up a new plan to incorporate, OR self-contract and do our own thing!! YEAH!! This was one bright idea I'll tell you (insert sarcasm here) Listen folks...DO NOT TRY THIS - EVER!!!

Unless all of the following apply to you:

1. You have a key to the doors at the Federal Reserve Bank

2. You don't have anything else to do but baby-sit contractors all day and night

3. You love high blood pressure

So the journey began on November 17, 2010. We called the troops in (a group of guys ready to knock holes in walls and destroy any trace of the circa 1965 shag red carpet that was laid in the house) for the first Demo party...of many. We were living on the edge...no plan, magazine pages ripped out with ideas, a very small amount of funds, and needing a place to live in a matter of weeks.

I'm not good at editing in PS yet...

Here is a view standing in the Kitchen area looking toward the back of the property...

You can see the french doors and side windows framed. Also you will notice in these pics that all of the ceilings have been raised to 10 foot throughout the 1st floor.

Here is a view standing in the dining/entry area looking toward the hall way that leads to the downstairs bedrooms. The stairs have been removed in this pic and you can see where the upstairs landing is labeled

Here is a view standing in the kitchen (opposite from the view above)

Looking toward the front of the home. Here you can see the stairs to the left have begun to be rebuilt. You can also see where the plumber has broken out a trench to run my new sink in the island

This is a view standing outside in the driveway looking toward the front of the house. At this point we have added the 2 large gables in the front and knocked all of the brick out to make for new windows/front door.

It took us almost 2 months to get to this point. We ran into so many unknowns once we started the demo. ALL of the plumbing had to come completely out. ALL of the electrical had to come completely out. ALL of the A/C system had to come completely out. ALL of the sheet rock had to come completely out. In a nutshell....we built a brand new home on the existing slab.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story.