Day 2 demo

Day 2 demo was a rodeo!! Literally our whole first floor is in the basement. Our first floor is practically an empty shell.

The demo team also made a gruesome discovery. They found mice skeletons between the drywall and studs in the old kitchen area only!! I was freaking out. Keith and the demo guys assured me it was from a long time ago and the issue was resolved. Plus we’ve never seen evidence of mice, ever in this home, since we moved in 10 months ago!!

Well guess what? Around 8pm that evening a cute little mouse crawled down a stud and stared me straight in the eyes!! I called for Keith, who in Dwight Schrute, mode immediately took action. He attempted to catch the mouse with a bucket and trusty hammer but it ran into our family room under a counter bar. Keith was determined to find that litter critter and took it upon himself to sledge hammer the counter to pieces until he found it. Sure enough there it was attempting another escape from Keith and his sledge hammer. It got away again. Now it’s somewhere in our house!! Keith called Terminx who came to the rescue the next day only to quote us $10,000 for the removal!! Keith took matters in his own hands and somehow scientifically mapped out their old crawling paths through the kitchen walls and purchased 70 traps off amazon. Keith is about to show this mouse whose boss. Stay tuned….

Day 1 got off to a great start. The demo guys started tearing down dry wall and got rid of the kitchen. We are at the beginning of an open vibe.

Day 1 demo

Day before Demo!

It was the night before demo and all through the house not a creature was stirring except for Keith. As you can see, the kitchen and dinning room got a head start. Keith was like a kid in a candy shop and just couldn’t wait for the demo team. He took it upon himself to start tearing down drywall to see what lurked behind the walls.

He literally scared the daylights out of me when he popped his head up at me through the drywall he busted out behind the stove.

We started our family home journey originally in West Chester, Ohio. We bought a 2-story brick colonial built in 2006 with .24 acres in a new subdivision. We loved it out there! Great area for families. As the years went by, Keith and I discovered our heart is truly with nature and gardening. We craved a home with more land and trees. Over the years we looked and looked all over the Butler County area but nothing popped up. Then out of the blue we got lucky! God created a beautiful opportunity for us. A leap of faith. Our world was about to get flipped upside down.

We found out Keith’s great uncle had a unique wooded property in Montgomery, Ohio with 2.4 acres set in the woods that he was interested in selling. It was a traditional brick 2-story built in 1981. His aunt and uncle put so much love into the home. You could tell it was a special place.

When we moved in we loved the character of the home but it was a very compartmentalized floor plan. The kitchen was closed off and small. Each room felt so isolated from the rest of the home. We decided the main floor needed to be opened up! We knew this meant living in a renovation for 2-3 months! As awful as it sounded the thought of refreshing this home and bringing out the character was to hard to pass up.

I decided to blog after experiencing Week 1 of demo. We are having quite the adventure and I wanted to share our experience to preserve our memories along with spreading joy and entertainment to you as well!

Enjoy the roller coaster ride of our home renovation!!