Sheetrock time!

My big project for the weekend---pulling carpet stripping. A crow bar, needle nose pliers, and a screwdriver. Certainly my idea of fun!
The MOST important part of the kitchen---decor! The top fabric is the main fabric, striped fabric is the complimentary fabric, and the paint chip is the wall color---Medieval Times. We're doing a warm gold/beige in the living room and coral in the dining room, so I think the green will go well with those.
Hanging sheetrock---it's finally starting to look like a room again. Do they have any idea what they're doing!?!
Dad was a HUGE help this weekend. We can't thank him enough for taking off a long weekend to spend working, working, working. They finished all of the kitchen wiring, and most of the sheetrock. Thanks, Dad!

Weekend work---Dad arrives!

Our new appliances came this week. Here they sit---in the dining room, ready to move to their permanent spots. The fridge and sink should be here this week!
A new doorway! Dad and Brooke finished framing out the passway from the kitchen to the living room. It really opens things up and creates a better flow through the house.
Another look from the living room into the kitchen. Dad's working on wiring in the background.

Dad and Brooke work on the wiring---Brooke's putting in new recessed lighting and Dad's working on an outlet. Only a few shocks for each of them (and one for me!) this weekend.

More from Sunday...

Brooke being goofy!
From the kitchen side. Notice the little head through the cut out. I didn't realize Boone was in the shot until later. He's actually stretched out on our screened porch. Maybe his new spot.
Standing in the breakfast room looking into the kitchen. Only the cement backer board left to pull. Then sheetrock, and new flooring will come next.
Looking from the corner of the kitchen into the breakfast nook and door out to the mudroom/laundry room.
This one's for Mom. She said we didn't have a full view of the house. Obviously, it needs landscaping, among other things.

Sunday afternoon work...

A long and slow project...Catherine worked on pulling wallpaper. Only to decide that we'd just re-sheetrock.
Brooke moves into the living room to begin tear down on the bookshelves. We're going to build a pass-through from the kitchen into the living room. This will open up the flow of traffic through the house, and add some light into the living room. And, for those wondering, we are going to paint the paneling. It's gorgeous wood, and original to the house, but it's throughout the entire house with only a couple of bedrooms not paneled. It feels like a cave in there! We may leave the paneling on the ceiling, but we will lighten it up everywhere else.
VERY carefully removing the old tongue and groove paneling. We're saving it to re-do the wall once we're finished knocking the hole through.
The chimney behind the bookshelves.
Brooke inspects his work after chopping a hole into the kitchen.

The end of a Saturday work day...

Me cutting the VERY overgrown bushes between our house and the Hulsey's (our next door neighbors). Hey, is that a beer girl in the background?!!
The view from Signal Point. It's a fairly short walk from our house. The near mountain is Elder, the far mountain is Lookout.
Looking up the Tennessee River.

Various pics...

The back of our house. Like the screened porch, there's a brick patio to the left of the porch that we'll extend at some point.
Standing in our front yard, looking across to the golf course.
Turn your head sidways (Thank Cat for her photog skills). Looking down into the cellar from our kitchen. Reminds me of "Home Alone!" Found a Kraft mayo jar from 1940. No joke.
Catherine pulling up the carpet in the living room. We were thrilled to find the hardwoods in almost flawless condition. Why would you cover those up!?
Catherine pulled carpet staples all day!

During demolition...

Brooke did quite a bit of work on Friday...all cabinets, countertops, and appliances out!
Ready to go!
The old sink spot...
Under tile, Brooke found old red and white vinyl tiles (likely asbestos), and the original hardwoods. The floor is about 7 layers deep. Tile on cement backer board on plywood on abestos tile on hardwood on pine subfloor. Nice. The hardwood planks and plywood wall are rotten below the window where the sink was. Pray for solid studs when I pull that.
The pile of cabinets and counterops in our backyard!

A look at the kitchen...

The kitchen: ready to be demolished! Everything must go!
The far left door exits to the mudroom/laundry room and is another project in itself...

Our house!

Our plan is to paint the exterior a warmer khaki/beige, and put in a new front door---a wood stain, and full of windows... eventually the carport may come down and we'll add a garage around back...

A new (old!) house!

Hi everyone,

Being new to having a blog, this might take some time to figure out!

We're really going to try to document the progress of the work on our new home and thought this the easiest way for people to check it out. We closed on the house on Monday, September 10th...strangely enough, a year to the date we decided to make the move to Chattanooga!

The home is on Signal Mountain in Chattanooga. It's a traditional Cape Cod style house and was built in 1940 (I guess we're suckers for old houses!). It has a nice sized yard and good bones, but needs quite a bit of work in the inside. Our first project is the kitchen---an entire demo, and then on to the bathrooms, ripping up carpet, painting the exterior, landscaping, a new chimney, and along the way, painting the entire interior. With all that work, sounds like this blog will be going for a few years!

We've been working on ripping out the kitchen this week and meet with the last group today to get a final quote on the cabinets. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of posting pictures and have some up in the next couple of days!

Enjoy!
Catherine