Many people don't understand the concept of a gut renovation, even if they think that they do. Even I had to be reminded by my husband several times. Sometimes I would make a comment or ask a question that would make him simply roll his eyes. He somehow understood from the start what it meant. I thought I did; however, it was not until I saw the property after demolition that it really hit me!
To back up for a minute, I should mention that we did some "demolition" of our own when we first closed. The last "renovation" of this 1910 home had been when drop-down ceilings were all the rage, and we were anxious to gauge the true height of the ceilings in the home. In one evening of inspecting our newly purchased home, we took down a couple rooms' worth of drop-down ceilings and were very pleased to find the pre-war construction high ceilings that we expected.
In any case, when mentioning the gut renovation to friends and family, and indicating our anxiety concerning the project, we were met with common responses - Couldn't we save some of the wood floors? Couldn't some of the plumbing still be used? Maybe some old materials can be salvaged?
I'll let the following pictures do their own speaking. This was mid-demolition in the middle of January 2013:
To come shortly - the pictures when demolition was recently completed in the first week of February 2013.
I can’t imagine seeing my house be demolished to bits by those bulldozers and huge machines. Maybe it would be cool to see if it was for a reconstruction like from those in Extreme Makeover Home Edition. But still, I think that is something I wouldn’t unsee for quite a while.
ReplyDeletePatria William
Hi Patria! Thanks for your comment. I think perhaps it would be different if it was our "home" before, and we had lived there and grown used to it. I think since we bought it knowing we would knock everything down, it makes a difference. But now it has been in this demolished state for so long - we are anxious for it to look like the end result of Extreme Makeover!
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