Tear Down

On Saturday the long overdue and much needed deconstruction of my mom & dad's house began. They are ripping down their old family room and one car garage to create a much bigger family room, 2 car garage and a mud room (which a few of my kids are convinced will actually have MUD in it!). This first photo is of it largely intact... roof still on, partial walls, etc. I'm in the red, my dad's in the blue & my brother's on the roof. You can see the footings laid out for part of the new construction. On Saturday, ten of us descended on it. Good weather surrounded us and a dumpster stood empty in the driveway just waiting for us to fill it up... and we did! I started out down, but quickly ended up on the roof, running debris from the back to the front for my sister in law, Heidi, to hurl into the dumpster (or at least close). Others were inside and out ripping off walls and siding and gutters and soffits.

The second photo is a better overview & you can tell we had really been working. Heidi and I had been up on the roof, but found ourselves losing ground as the roof quickly came off. Most of the gang had been dismantling the family room, so we helped out with that. After a short break for lunch we were back at it undoing rafters, a rock wall (behind the fireplace), a very reluctant floor (poor David!) and trusses. Oh My!

The third photo is my brother & cousin, saw weilding and crowbar handling. They are on the last little piece of the remaining roof before being done. We kept moving the tarp (see photo 2) further down the line to try to collect most of the debris, while my aunt & uncle kept wheeling wheelbarrows full to the dumpster.

Next is my mom FINALLY getting her chance to whack the wall and take out all her frustrations, she ended up knocking it all the way down! YEAH MOM!

I got to do the back wall & I got it down ~ all by myself! Then we carted more and more to the dumpster and recycle piles and finally stood back to admire our hard work.

This is not the first project our family has all converged on to get done. And it definetely won't be the last. We seem to work well together & have an unspoken understanding of what needs to get done & who is going to do it. My aunt said it like this... "Some families get together & drink or play poker... we do this!"