Tearing down walls

Sorry I've been absent lately, but my house looks like this...

and we are having a party on Saturday.

No, a tornado did not strike our house.  We are not filming a World War II epic bombing scene in our upstairs.  And Joey was only joking about finding out once and for all where the mice were getting in as he swung his hammer.

We've been talking for the last few months about tearing out the thin, flimsy wall that divided the stairs, making them dark, cramped and unbelievably tight.  A few weeks ago, my dad put the idea out that we could tear down a few more walls and open up a small room into a large landing and sitting area, opening the upstairs hallway to two windows and making it feel bigger.  The small room was really more of an over-sized closet that I had been calling my "sewing room" since we moved in and I stuck my sewing machine and boxes of fabric in there.  Not once have I sewed in that room.  I always bring my sewing machine down to the dining room so I can spread out on the table.

I loved the idea of a more open upstairs, maybe even building a sitting area with built-in book shelves and a window seat.  Joey loved the idea of smashing down walls.  He loved the idea so much he couldn't wait to borrow a friend's saw and start cutting away at it.  Even though we are having about 12 people over on Saturday.  And three people are supposed to be able to sleep upstairs without the risk of major splinters, contracting tetanus, and inhaling drywall dust...

Let's just say we've got a deadline.  Obviously everything won't be cleared out, with a new stair railing built by Saturday evening.  But we've gotta clean up some of that debris.  Joey thinks it will be a conversation starter at the party.  And an excuse for our house being a mess...please excuse our mess, we are currently remodeling.  You don't mind sleeping on an air mattress on top of this pile of rubble do you?

On top of tearing through the upstairs, we've also been trying to finish our downstairs bathroom remodel.  It all started a few months ago when Joey was at work and I decided to rip out the gross, old, sliding glass shower doors that had probably been in the bath since the sixties.  Along with the orange shag carpet on both floors of the house.  And the yellow and orange flowered wallpaper.  Then I decided I wanted a new toilet.  And new flooring.  And wainscoting.

Over the last few months, Joey and I have been laying new flooring, my dad installed wainscoting, and Joey and I finally got to painting, re-installing the new toilet and laying the last of the tiles this week in anticipation of our guests.  Eventually we want to get new light fixtures and a new sink and vanity, but for now, it is looking much better.

Our bathroom, when we bought the house April 2010

Note the old shower doors, yellow molding, really old, giant toilet that if you look closely, you will see that they cut a piece out of the wall so the lid would fit, the hideous wallpaper, the grimy, grey linoleum, and last-but-not least, the toilet-paper holder built into the wall at your feet.  Lovely.

Here it was last night...looking a lot better, at least I think so.

Please excuse the coloring in this photo, I took it at night, and I don't really know how to take good inside/nighttime photos.  The wall color looks closer to this:

It's called "Creamed Coffee."  And it looks a lot better than the toothpaste color we had in the interim between the yellow daisies and the current color.  Joey remarked the other night, paint roller in hand, that it was interesting that we were painting a bathroom the color of poop.  24-year-old boys...

So anyway, that is the chaos that is happening in my house right now.  I am happy that progress is being made towards a more finished house.  And we're having an ugly Christmas Sweater party on Saturday, debris or no!