Demolition

This was probably the saddest and hardest part of the project so far. We gutted the entire house.

We had to remove a majority of the flooring in the living room and kitchen. We had to even dig a crawl space to repair and brace some of the floor joyces (spelling?) Years and years of existing had accumulated lots of dirt under the house. And... there are bottles everywhere under the house! Some soda bottles from the 70's, milk bottles, mason jars, and lots of strange unidentified bottles. It was like opening a time capsule! We really still don't know why. I tried googleing it. I seriously doubt it was to ward off witches. Any comments with input would be appreciated. Curiosity is killing me!! WHY??

Here is the space in the kitchen. As you can see from this picture... there was a ton of brick just hanging out in the attic! Scary! It was overwhelming... and one huge mess. All of the sheetrock, from walls to ceilings was torn out. Surprisingly... there was no insulation anywhere in the house! That had to make for some cold winters and hot summers. We did find a newspaper from the Nixon era covering a hole in the living room. I had a pic, but can't find it at this time.

Even in the mess can you just see all of the light from these kitchen windows! I really like bright rooms. I hate feeling like I am in a cave. Natural lighting makes me happy. :)

 

 Here is a look into the living room. You can see some of the electrical boxes going in. We had the house re-wired. There was some interesting "period" wiring going on in there. Half was the old wire and post kind. (with exposed wires in the attic) and the other half was different. A lot of older houses had the electrical wiring in the door frames! Interesting!

Here is the new flooring going in!

And this house had more nails than I have ever seen in one place at one time! I had to take them all out so we could put in new sheetrock! There seriously was one or in some instances two or three nails every inch or so!! But hey, I already have great plans for my kids and neice and nephew. When we were little, my grandpa and grandma brown, had a big magnet that was tied to a string. We used to drag it around the yard hoping to find nails or screws. We got a penny for each nail and a nickel for each screw or washer. It was a huge treat! Then Grandpa would take us to Turks country store or Inskeeps store and we could buy single reeses cups that were $.05 each. They would get put into a very small paper bag. Occasionally we would change it up and get some of the peppermint patties... but reeses were definetly my favorite! Turks still sells them this way in the same place by the cash register. I can't wait to do this with the kids! Memories... fill em with warm and fuzzy... that is my job as mommy. The mere sight of these small paper packages or the selection jars by the register take me back.

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 Here is the part of the house that has me twitterpated... The old doors... with all of the character in the world. Every knob is different. The detail is amazing. We salvaged all of the doors and trim above the door frames and windows. I have spent a lot of time around paint... let me tell ya!

Four prongs?!? Our electrician asked to keep one of them!! He said that he had never actually seen one in person! Still one of my favorite parts!!

This Old House.

Our main goal... after doing some soul searching with Dave Ramsey when he visited our church was to get out of debt. We decided to sell our home and move back to the small town where I grew up. I longed for simpler times and places and could think of no better place. Anyone that grew up in warwick would have to agree that you can't get closer to Mayberry than Warwick Oklahoma.--- well... minus all of the stores etc... My children will start school next year so that became our goal date. We origionally were planning on buying a cheap trailer (which proved to be a bigger task than we imagined) but ended up with an old house that was across the street from my mother!.. Perfect! Everything just sort of fell together. (Which I believe to be a God thing) Fixing up this house has taken us on quite a journey... and I have LOVED almost every moment of it.... We still have a ton of work to do... but are well on our way to moving and then the daunting task of selling our home in Edmond. I dread it.... I am so scared! (There isn't much that truely frightens me... but this may just be it!!) Selling houses, and people.... that pretty much sums up my fears.... ok.. and alzheimers.... and car accidents, and childhood diseases. That's it. Anyways.... I was wanting to share with you some of our progress. It has been a ton of work... but I am falling in Love!


A view from the outside. Our sweet country home!


 

The house belonged to one of our dear neighbors that I grew up around. I never imagined myself ever living there! I think I had only been inside once or twice when I as a girlscout was selling cookies. Lorene always bought cookies. I looked forward to going there. I can close my eyes and still see the family gatherings (mostly around fourth of July and Easter) in her yard. We were only spectators.... but I still felt close to her family. It comforts me to know that in this house before me, there was love. My dad tells me stories about growing up here sometimes as we sit outside under shade trees after working hard all day. I long for the day we will be here all of the time. I am really ready to do some front porch sittin!

As you can see, the house is in dire need of a little TLC. The roof leaks, trees are falling down everywhwere and it is quite run down... but here I feel more home than I do in my shiney new home in Edmond. My husband --- the city boy--- sees things in somewhat a different perspective... but who can blame him :)

Yes, that is roofing material on the side of the house.... Like I said.... we have got some work ahead of us!

This is what will be the kids bedroom. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the old windows. The light in this room is amazing. It is always bright! I really do wish I had taken more pictures. But it is what it is. The transformation of this house is hard to believe! And we are doing all of the work ourselves! With a lot of help from friends and family who know more about what they are doing!

This is probably the smallest bathrooms I have ever seen! My husband jokes that you could sit on the toilet and bathe the kids ... and he isn't kidding... you probably could!  The Tub has came out and will eventually follow us to a home we will build later on down the road. I Love clawfoot tubs. This tub has seen many coats of paint in it's day. Way too many for me to refinish myself on my budget today. And little ones really need a safer tub. One day. The bathroom walls are definetly an add on. Back from the days of outhouses. I bet it was a really big day when they got an indoor bathroom in this home back in the day! My grandparents had an outhouse when I was a child. It is so neat to be in a home with so much history! This bathroom is Jack and Jill before it ever existed!

Cabinets that were build into the frame of the house. Unfortunately we were not able to save them. :(  We tried. They were just in too bad of shape.. I loved the character!

We did not keep the carpet that was throughout the house. I can't believe I didn't take any before pictures as we took this out! But it was the first thing to go!

 

The old sink

Knick-knack cabinet.... I think all older people had them hand crafted in their home! This too had to go.... not because it was in bad shape (that sucker DID NOT want to come out) but because part of the fireplace that was origionally there was still in the attic! I am so glad we took everything out! If it had ever fallen over for any reason, several hundred bricks could have fallen through the ceiling (and hurt someone)

This was probably one of my favorite parts. Talk about security! This was the origional door going off of the back porch. I remember having a couple in the small house that we grew up in. My favorite one is the bent nail. It reminds me of my grandmother!

Anyways.... we are further along now... I just wanted to show you the beginning. I hope this will be a happy fresh start for our family. I know these pictures also bring back fond memories of happier times for this family. This house had been empty for a while. It is sad what time takes away from a home. To many more memories that this old house gets to be a part of.... to holiday dinners, birthdays, toothfairies, first days of school, cousins visiting, everyday breakfasts, game night, happiness, sadness and all that life brings.