AND the demolition commences...

I know I just posted about our renovation but Nate and Rob made huge progress today! I am so impressed and I must confess I felt a tinge of excitement today.

First, they knocked out most of the drywall to the fireplace! I really hate that part of this house and I am glad to see it go. I just think it was so awkwardly placed. I love that the kitchen/dining room will have an open floor concept.

Next, they ripped out all the laminate flooring!

Finally, we purchased our crown molding to go on top of the cabinets. We decided not to replace our cabinets and there are several reasons for this. Cabinets can get pretty expensive. Since this is not our "dream home" and we will not be staying here long we felt that the cabinets were in good enough shape that we could refinish them and exert of efforts and money in other areas. The bones of the cabinets are good enough for now so we are sanding and repainting them.

Here are some pictures of the progress from today. See if you can tell the difference from yesterdays pictures...

Surprise! You are renovating a HOUSE!

I never imagined in a thousand years... that I would ever embark upon a renovation project... and well here we are... renovating a house.

I have always had the motto "Buy it new, so you do not have to fix it- and if you DO have to fix it, chances are you have a warranty." Good motto, right? Ha ha. Well, obviously we are going against the grain on this one because we bought a foreclosed home and boy does it EVER need work.

When we first got married I learned that Nate loved HGTV. I had never heard about nor watched HGTV but I got quickly integrated once we were married. Television was not something that I did before I was married. Now...I love the show Love It or List It! But just because I love the show does not mean I want to attempt  it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would do something like this. But here we are-married a little over 3 years, 15 month old twins, Nate is working full time and running a new start-up business, and I am back in school AND we are now renovating a house. We like to take things in stride ...

We closed on our new project in August. We have been so grateful to have the amazing and wonderful family and friends. So many people have been helping us. It is still overwhelming. I am learning a lot. Here are some pictures of the house before we did anything.

We had granite counter tops installed and are building an island in the kitchen. We are also replacing all the floors, repainting all the walls, fixing the roof, drywall, and a lot of other things...
Wish us luck because it is very much NEEDED!