DAY 8 - We r back in business!

The house looks amazing!  They have demo'd the guest bath and Viola's room and half of the stairwell.  I now have this dramatic stairwell fit for a "palace"! I was going to close it up a bit so I could get more storage in my Master bedroom closet but seeing the stairwell so open I think I have to forgo the extra storage! What do you think....

    I have a 9ft ceiling height in the stairwell - I see 2 beautiful pendant lights hanging in the space...

The rest of the house looks empty and bare - we tore off all of the old plaster and got rid of the old insulation - which by the way was in every inch of my house.  Of all the old houses I have opened up like this, mine is the first with insulaiton in ALL walls, interior and exterior and between the floors!!

                                  Day 8 with the finished roof...front porch will be started tomorrow!!

                 Bathroom and Viola's room - all open ready for "newness" of fresh sheet rock and trim!

                 The old guest bath, fixtures demo'd making way for the new bathroom...so exciting!

I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and am back to enjoying the process and evolution! Tomorrow they will demo my existing porch and start to work on the new expanded one.  We are trying to figure out the design of the front steps with relation to my existing walk way.  In real life it is a bit different than what my architect has shown so we need to make some minor adjustments. Typical things that present them selves in renos.

One thing came to light through this "disaster" a few days ago.  When we moved all of our items out of the second floor, my home looked soooo completely different than what I thought .  As our things were there, I thought we had a good solid house with not many cracks, unevenness or troubles.  As I stood in the 2nd floor empty rooms, I saw 1 million cracks, floors that were like waves,and  uneven door openings.  Seeing this shed some light on client's expectations about the new converted spaces.  You remember your original homes as being soooo much nicer than they actually were, so naturally you expect your new spaces to be perfect - beyond perfect, better than the space before.  But realistically, we are renovating an old space - it is not new and will never be "new".  You are working with what was created 80+ years ago - you can add new Sheetrock, new paint, new trim but really it is still an old frame.  If you can keep that in mind, your enjoyment of the new space will be that much more.  Unless you tear down and start from scratch, you will need to make friends with the idiosyncrasies of these old homes.  Just doing ANY renovation is better than what you started with!  We will not get a MODERN home out of this, but ours will be more open, updated and spacious.  The ultimate goal from any renovation.