Demolition is done!

According to our contractors, my darling husband Jon is a "trojan." They came over this morning to check out our progress and also tell us what to do with the exposed wiring left from demolition. They were blown away by how much Jon had accomplished. I can't take much credit other than making him sandwiches for lunch. He went through 2 respirators and over 40 jumbo bags of plaster, lathe, wood and cellulose insulation. He is now on first name basis with the wonderful people at our Hatch Hill dump in Augusta, ME.

He took a bunch of pictures during demolition for your viewing pleasure. Just looking at these makes me want to put a respirator on.

This amazing 2005 Ford F-150 is quite possibly the best purchase we've ever made.

Here's what it looks like now:

What will be a shower and closet.

This side will contain a double sink and toilet. That window will be taken out.

This is the shed dormer that I wanted to rip out and replace with traditional dormers. Too expensive. So we are going to add on to the end of the shed dormer one more window (where the ladder is pictured).

The other end of the bedroom, with closet that we are going to keep. It's plaster on the inside, but is in pretty good condition- so I'll repair where needed and repaint.

This is the crowning jewel of the entire project. Beneath the horrible carpet and this old padding we found these beautiful, wide plank, protected hard wood floors. We're going to refinish them. I love hardwoods in the bedroom with area rugs.

The other amazing discovery during this process was the fact that we didn't find any insulation in the outside walls. When we first looked at the house in May, I was struck by how cold this room was. I can't believe someone slept in here in the middle of Maine during winter without insulation on the outside walls. Also, the baseboard heat is obviously on those outside walls, so adding insulation should cut down significantly on our oil bills!

More good news: our contractors are going to start on Tuesday. They totally see my vision and even laugh at my jokes. It is really comforting to work with people I trust. They say the project will probably take about a month. It's definitely small scale compared to what they usually do, but they seem genuinely excited about the end product.