Day 1: Let the demolition begin!

After being couped up in my place because I was sick, it felt good to get out and release some energy. Our instructions for the demo... gut it all to the studs! A dumpster had been delivered below the second floor windows the day before for us to get started. There were 3 of us, Michael (Joanne's brother), Joanne and me! Michael got it all started by knocking out the 2nd floor window frame so we'd have a clear drop into the dumpster. Joanne and I started in the basement taking down the drywall with sledge hammers!

We cranked up the radio to a country station and began in the basement. It was divided into 3 rooms and we just started making holes in between studs, then ripping off the drywall with our hands. Maybe not the most efficient method, but it worked. It's a walk-out basement, so the walls were not completely surrounded by dirt. In fact there were windows on 3 sides. What we discovered removing the drywall by the windows was that there was previous termite damage to the window sills. No part of the actual structure was damaged and it didn't seem to affect the drywalls attached to the termite damaged wood. Also visible was water damage of some sort. There was no water barrier or plastic sheets between the cinderblock walls and the drywalls. And there was no other insulation. We worked from about 8am until 12pm and actually had lots of fun. The time seemed to fly by as we were able to remove 85% of the drywall and get it into the dumpster.

Up next was to remove windows, more drywall and even more drywall!