demolition derby

we decided to hold a demolition derby in our own home a few weeks ago.
a basement demolition derby that is.  it was wonderful :)

friday night we started out by filming a basement tour (so you can experience the creepy basement for yourself!) and once that was finished, we immediately began ripping off paneling (it was everywhere!) and drywall.  i won't go into all the details of what we found behind those walls...let's just say at some point there were some dirty people living here!! we also found FIVE dead mice (nasty!!!) and plenty of spider webs:

saturday morning we cleaned up the BIG mess (max was such a great helper...avery, not so much :) and when the kids were napping we finished destroying what was left of the basement.  it may seem a little crazy to most of you, but we wanted to be able to see what we had to work with and how we might be able to arrange walls differently (since the layout isn't the most efficient right now).  this will probably be a project that we'll be working on for a while but we'll take it!

...and this weekend we're turning our attention to the mudroom/pantry area at the top of the stairs.  danny has got fall break (beginning tomorrow!! woot woot!) so we are framing, drywalling, taping, mudding, painting, and assembling.  

this is what the room has undergone the past few weeks:

+ the removal of the nasty cupboards:

+ and "tile" wall:

 + the uncovering of some creepy wallpaper:

+ and an unidentifiable space (was it a window?  a gun safe?  who knows...)

check back tomorrow for more progress!