Demolition Derby

A status report from our second weekend at our new (old) house...

Here is the downstairs 1/2 bath when I left for work Friday morning. Steven had just removed the washing machine from that back corner, and was fixin' to do a LOT more.

The same little bathroom, on Saturday evening...
And, finally, after a weekend of doing the Demolition Dance with Steven...
With some help from a Mister Radl, he demo'd the whole room and also took out the wall that was separating the bathroom from the kitchen. The plan is to steal a couple feet from that kitchen area (which will eventually become the pantry) so there will be room to install a simple shower stall in the back corner of the bathroom...crucial in a house with only 1 full bath. And with all of the debris from the bathroom demo, the dumpster is O-fficially FULL...
And on my end, I finished scraping the adhesive off of the floor of our future bedroom, which also called for the careful excision of approximately 1 million staples, and finally, removal of the tack strip. (Which, btw, was installed as if it needed to survive a nuclear holocaust. BIG nails, in addition to the tacks, about every 5 inches. Next time you encounter a carpetinstallerman, kick him in the shin for me.) Awesomely, my mom (aka: the wallpaper czar) went to town on the wallpaper in there, removing all of the vinylized portions, and about 1 wall's worth of the paper backing.Now we just need to talk to our floor guy about refinishing the floor, and I need to focus on removing the rest of the paper backing & adhesive on the walls. Apparently hot water with fabric softener is the trick (per the czar). The BR as it stands right now:
And using that method with great success, my BIL Brian, removing the wallpaper in the parlor...
I'd say it's about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way done, and then we'll figure out whether we can just prime it or we need to do a quick skim coat over the plaster. So excited to paint this room! I already have a "vision". :)
It was beautiful out this morning, so I decided to get some garden time in. (Which means the wallpaper removal in our BR is not as far along as it could be. But it was totally worth it.) I did some weeding around the lupine growing behind the house...
And I planted an impatiens that my grandmother brought up for me under the big maple tree in the side yard. Hopefully this puppy survives...I'd be quite mortified if the first thing I try to plant croaks on me!
I particularly love this impatiens, because it has double blossoms, which look really full and almost like mini roses. Pretty, yes?

Well that's it for tonight, but I'll be posting again soon...