Rehabber’s Rehab

When we first thought about having a party for demolition, I thought who would want to come and get dirty and help us with the nasty part of our remodel. It turns out quite a few people wanted to come to help, to get dirty, to destroy stuff, and to fulfill their curiosity for our new project.

After we closed we went straight over to the house and started ripping up the carpets. While dragging out the remains of the 30 year old carpet I couldn’t help but notice that there was a lot of work to do and that Matt, Liz and I could only do so much. Amazingly almost a 100% of our RSVP’s came which doesn’t usually happen even for a strictly “fun” party.

We are so appreciative of everyone who came. We exceeded my expectations of what we could get done and how willing people were to contribute and jump whole-heartedly into the fun that I know demolition to be.

AND NOW FOR THE PRESENTATION OF THE 2008 “DEMI” ACADEMY AWARDS (more…)

Our friends Kim and Terry brought up concerns about having friends run wild throwing hammers into walls hitting electrical lines, water pipes, etc.  Kim and Terry know our friends and their concerns are warranted.  However, the bashing will not be so haphazard and the most reckless of offenders (Drew) are well known and will be monitored closely.  Below is my tentative schedule for the wrecking party and inaugural weekend.  Besides being safe, we want to provide enough “activities” that are safe, enjoyable and allow people to either just hangout or dive-in completely.  Everyone should dress appropriately regardless of your participation level.

PRE-PARTY PLANS:

1.  Documentation- This is important to any project for several reasons.  It is great to see the impact of a project when you can view before and after images of the home.  The changes are dramatic and allows friends and family to share in your project.  Also documentation allows you to compare the difference that various improvements make and how much valuable those improvements when compared with the cost of the project.  We missed out on documenting thoroughly the Rice street project, so we are going to make sure and get lots of pictures from the beginning to end and get a couple of walk through videos. (more…)

We checked today into waste removal for all the demo’d drywall, 2×4′s and who knows what else we’re going to have. This is the dirty side of a project, but this is the part that can quickly turn it from manageable to overwhelming. It is also all of the dirt and dust that gets to me the most quickly, when I can’t keep anything clean and am running run into stray boards all the time. It is what makes me hate these projects sometimes because things are ALWAYS messy, and you can’t even have a bowl of cereal with out rinsing out the dishes first.

Waste management is important to us from an environmental standpoint as well, as this has the largest initial impact. So we want to deal with our refuse not only quickly and safely, but also as enviornmentally as possible. (more…)