Basement Demolition - DONE!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

A dumpster full of basement debris!

It's odd, really...

The thought of disassembling an entire house.

We have either been directly involved in or, 

in the case of  our Casa di Mossi in Pleasant View, 

have been our own contractor for each of the three homes we've owned.

So, we are quite familiar with the experience of building a home.

Disassembling a house is quite a different matter.

And it's much more  complicated than I'd expected.

And...

we're kind of tired.

BUT...

that has not diminished our enthusiasm for this undertaking in the least.

Here are a few photos...
(with very little commentary for the sake of making this a quick effort)

I gotta say that rolling up this c. 1970's sculpted orange carpet

and chuckin' it in the dumpsta was thrilling for me.

Personally, I prefer the c. 1950's, asbestos-laced linoleum that was underneath it.
No, I'm not kidding.

Dean and Joe -
demolitions dudes.

Demolition is messy, hard work.
With the exception of some help from Joe on Memorial Day
and some easy-peasy tasks done by moi,
Dean did most of it .
See that thick coat of plaster on the basement ceiling/kitchen floor over
the stairs near the top & center of the photo directly above?
When I set in to takin' that off, Mr Mossi warned
that it might be it might be too much for me to handle.
I brushed off his skepticism, grabbed by pry-bar
(We have his and hers pry-bars, btw. How many couples do you know that can can say that?!) 
and a hammer and went at it.
And...
he was right.
I worked on it for about 20 minutes, barely making a dent, and finally gave up.
Turns out I'm a much better pack-horse than I am a demolition dude.
Between the both of us, we must have made 10,000 trips up those stairs
carrying 5 gallon buckets-full and arms-full of debris out and throwing it in the dumpster.
And there was the sweeping and sweeping and sweeping and
more sweeping.
SO MUCH DUST!

This is a section of exposed wall in the basement.
Button board was plaster and lathe's successor.
It's what 90% of the walls here at the Bungalow are made of.

This is plaster and lathe, in case you didn't know.
It's very "old-school".

Aaaannnd...
there ya go.
Done.

Oh, and one more very important detail.
We're havin' a lot of fun while we're at it, cuz
all work and no play would make Mr & Me a very dull team.

So....


Looking up the laundry chute from the basement below.
Makes me wonder if any Chadwick children or grandchildren ever tried to
shimmy their way up.

And...

Don't be surprised if you go lookin' for cookies in the kitchen cupboards....
 and you find a creeper instead!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

And last, but NOT least...
(#itseasiertoaskforgivenessthanpermission)