Demo has begun

OK.... once you take a look at the photos, you will understand why I haven't blogged. Life has revolved around our recent ginormous purchase. Every spare moment, break, dream, and even nightmare seems to involve the new house. The Beckley house has changed dramatically since we acquired the keys, thanks to Rich. He has made remodeling the house his full time job. He has accomplished so much in the past 22 days. Initially we anticipated having three months to fix things before we had to move in. Well, thanks to our lender taking longer than expected, we only have two months. Yes, that's right........ we will be moving into the Beckley house at the end of August. Our lease will be up at our current place, so we must have the Beckley house in a liveable state. While doing the remodeling, we've also had to be mindful of the historical regulations. The Beckley house is in a Dallas historical district. This is both bad and good. Good in the respects that no one can tear down our house (ever) and that we have an extrememly cool history in our neighborhood. Our house is located in historical Lake Cliff in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. Oak Cliff is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Dallas and sometimes gets a bad rep. Now the bad about being historical. We have to seek approval from a commitee for anything that we do to the exterior, especially in the front. This means paint, brick, fencing, windows, and even approval for plants! Kind of a pain in the booty! In the end, I believe that the good out weighs the bad. Also since we got on the place for a bargain price, we are sure to profit when we decide to sell. Here are some long overdue photos.

The photo on the left is of the house on the day we got the key. I'm taking the photo while standing in the living room, facing the dining room, and further back is the kitchen. The photo on the right was taken last Saturday and is from about the same spot. Notice the walls and ceiling are missing.



We've also had some discoveries. On the left is the original hardwood floor. It was discovered under numerous layers of linoleum and sticky laminate stuff. The house was built in 1935, so we have been told that the hardwood is probably solid red oak. On the right you can see a red chimney. The foundation guy spotted it under the house. It was hidden behind a wall in the kitchen and a closet. We had no idea that it exsisted. Notice the hole about 3/4 of the way up. We believe that the stove must have been positioned below it and a hose ran up to the hole and the exhaust would go out of the chimney. We are going to remortar it and make it a decorative part of the kitchen.


The photo on the left is of our new joists in the kitchen floor. The photo on the right is of our bathroom. I took it b/c we just had the joists also fixed in there. Got to celebrate the structural achievements of the house. So far we've had 8 piers repaired and the cross beams fixed. Rich has also replaced almost all the windows. Next week, we are hoping to have the sub flooring put back in and then eventually start placing the cabinets and bathroom fixtures. It's kind of exciting that Rich has done all of this work. In the end, it will truly be a house that he rebuilt.