"Excuse me, Sir, but dare I say I believe you may have just kicked my wall in."

This phrase could have been heard repeatedly throughout the day this past Saturday at the Prokott residence........if we were snooty, tired, old British chaps!


But British chaps we are not, and as such, many a wall were kicked, pile driven, punched, smashed, and hammered to the ground. The brave men and women that joined us came armed and ready with whatever they could round up; whether it be hammers, power tools or a dog name Rocky.


Combined we put in a total of 122 hours of labor. This was a feat that would have taken Greg and I a whopping 3.35 work weeks to complete. For this we want to thank those of you who came out to help us. We couldn't have done it without you. We worked hard, but we had a good time doing it. The two cases of beer we went through is proof-positive.


First and foremost, it's very important that I point out that I have officially committed to the task at hand as of last Saturday. Not only am I "along for the ride," but I have all chips in.

Why?

Because I'm the proud owner of a toolbelt.

That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen, a genuine leather-with-pockets-galore toolbelt. I wore it with pride the entire day, even after Greg advised that it doesn't count if I'm only hanging my hammer on it.

But I digress. The day was a complete success. We started with the honorary first hole in the wall (notice: I wasn't trusted to wield a true sledge hammer! A regular hammer will just have to do):

Well, that was fun. On to the work.
It was amazing how many layers these people had on their walls and on their floors! In one area I counted 4 wall layers and 3 floor layers. Each one was uglier than the next!
Here is a pic of the wallpaper we found after pulling off the wood paneling in the living room:

Note to the previous homeowner: Nice job measuring out your wood-paneling using black spray paint. Stay classy.

The day progressed layer by layer, wall by wall. It seemed the work would never end. But progress was made the walls surely came down. Check out the progress!

No demolition party would be complete without a few breaks and some brewskis.

We couldn't immediately part with the beautiful nature scene that was once a part of what used to be the master bedroom, so we propped it up in the living room for a while.

What a joke.

Upstairs completed:

Of course, we had to keep the stove!

On to the basement. The basement was also completely finished. They apparently rented it out. It was interesting to hear stories about the previous homeowners. One thing we consistently heard from our neighbors was that they were both rather "sickly" people. After pulling the cabinets in the basement kitchen, it's no wonder! Check out all that mold!

More basement progress:

While we had no ceremony, it was rather ceremonious demolishing the mom-sized shower:

You can see where the shower used to be in the last photo. The (non-functioning) toilet is all that remains.

I think we did pretty good for a single day's work. We are now the proud owners of an empty shell of a house!

Next up is the guest house. This will be priority #1 from here on out until we move in. It will need to be completely ready before the end of November since that is when our lease is up.

Stay tuned!