A Good Days Work

Today Marc and the kids and I spent over half of the day at the house. There is a lot to do and we jumped in head first. I started ripping up carpet while Marc set up his tools and showed the investor our plans for the renovations. Later, we did my favorite part- DEMO!!! There is something about demo that makes me very happy. Ripping out the old to make way for the new. Once the dust settles you are left with an empty shell of opportunity. It excites me! My head has been spinning with all of the ideas for this house but the kitchen has been "my baby" in this house. It is very small but that isn't stopping me from big ideas. Right now it is a narrow, galley style kitchen but we will be opening it up to the living room to make it feel larger.
Today was a good day. And although there is not one part of my body that doesn't ache..........it feels very good that we accomplished what we did.

So, here is what the kitchen looked liked until yesterday.............


Cabinets are removed...................

And this is how it looks now.........................

Ahhhh..........possibilities. Kyle and Bella were right beside us swinging their hammers (which I failed to get a picture of- URGH!) and knocking out the walls. I gave them small hammers and then wrapped a sponge around the claw and then covered the sponge with a sock so that when they swung the hammer it wouldn't come back and hurt them. They had a ball! And they were very proud of their work!!

When it was time to clean up Bella wanted to help with that too!! She loved the little dust pan!! She would sit it on the floor, pick up handfuls of trash, load it on to the dust pan and then dump it in the trash can. It was so fun to watch. Kyle was exhausted and chose to supervise!! LOL!!

We took a lot of toys to the house for the kids to play with. There is a nice size family room in the basement for them to play in. However, they thought what we were doing was more fun!! I have to brag on my kids here- they are fantastic! Little helpers every step of the way. I was so proud of them today. They never cease to amaze me. Marc and I were worried when we decided to take this project. We weren't sure how the kids would feel, if we would be "losing" time with them. if they would feel left out, etc. We had the best time the last two days and it has become a family affair. And although we know it won't be this easy every day, we are doing this for our kids. If we do well on this flip, or maybe two, we will be able to get into the neighborhood we want. The school system is one of the best in the state and the neighborhood is extremely desirable. So desirable that we otherwise couldn't afford it. Yikes!

I want to share a picture of the living room. The house is a split level and this is the first room you walk into when you come into the house. The entry door would be to the right in this photo. The kitchen door is the opening you see on the left. When I took the picture I was standing upstairs on the landing. I love the vaulted ceiling. I am trying to convince Marc to vault the kitchen too so that the entire room will be open with soaring ceilings. We have some concerns with wiring and a gas line though. If it was going to be our house we would probably do it, but being a flip house that may be too time consuming. We are on a two month schedule for this house so time is money.

Can't you picture it though?!?! Yes, it would be beautiful. I guess we'll see what happens!!

Well, that is all for now. More to come. Much, much, much more!!!

~Heather:)