"When in doubt, rip it out!"

When we began this little project and after our huge demolition day, we slowly began to realize that demo day was only the beginning of many additional demolition escapades. That first day, we ripped out everything we did not like (e.g. nasty black floor tile on the first floor) and hesitated with other things (e.g. the double ceiling on the first floor..yes, there was a flat ceiling with weird recessed rectangles and underneath, another ceiling! With a stipple pattern! Blech!). If we were going to do it all again, we would have ripped out everything out from the beginning. NOTE: drywall is cheaper a square foot when there's more of it.

By the stairs leading up the bedrooms, there were pillars with electrical boxes for sconces. Cool you may say. Wait, not cool. They were messing up our drywall. Poorly placed and poorly designed. When in doubt, rip it out!
When in doubt, put Adam's head through the drywall....believe me, we wanted to throw our heads through drywall many a time.

From this lovely picture, you can see a bare bones downstairs. Yes, Adam is standing on two ladders with a saw! Pretty impressive, isn't it?Also note the sub floor. Plywood peeps, that's what's under your carpet, tile or hardwood; it's very ugly and ours was unfortunately riddled with dog urine! When it doubt, rip that stuff out!

If you've never been to your local city dump, it's quite an experience. We went there many times. At one point, Adam and my mom were gambling on how much our bill would be based upon the weight of our trash. They were often very close!

Mom and I even went one Saturday morning on our way to Ikea. Real women go to the city dump. And then Tim Hortons for coffee and breakfast sandwiches.

Lesson folks - when in doubt, rip it out. You can always put something back in!