Did I mention this post would be about demo? Guys weāve been eat, sleep, and breathing sheetrock dust around these parts! The Merc renovation is in full swing and things seem (in my opinion) to be moving really quickly!
So hows it going!? Honestly Iām exhausted. Physical labor for 10+ hours a day is no joke but in the southern Utah heat it is freakinā brutal, I donāt know how I havenāt lost 15 lbs. cause Iāve definitely sweated out that much.
Weāve already had some fun discoveries. The concrete cutters have been here for the last 3 days. Its so funny, when we told our friends that we were having the concrete cut professionally a few of them were like āoh no, its totally a DIY job. You could have saved so much money by renting the cutter and doing it yourself.ā We were feeling a little like maybe that would have been a better choice until we saw THISā¦
WHAT. THE. FREAK.
Yes if you have a normal 4ā³ slab DIYing that would be a great option but I AM SO GLAD that we didnāt try to DIY this. It would have taken us 3 months. Literally. These things are like boulders. We arenāt sure what the grand total for the job is but Iāll definitely let you guys know what it comes back at!
One of the most satisfying phases of demo was taking out the wall the separated the entryway from the kitchen. (In the picture below you can see the wood planked section of the wall, that is going to be our front door!)
This picture is standing in the entryway looking into the kitchen.
We still have some possible demo in the back bedroom to do, but hopefully we can get that situated and move on from this dusty hell.
Iāve had so much fun figuring out how to vlog all of this, here are our day 2 and 3 videos! (Day 3 is my fave, it gives you some serious insight into my marriageā¦.)
Is this even real? I CANāT BELIEVE IT. You guys we FINALLY started renovations on the Merc yesterday! Pinch me, slap me, tickle my butt, cause this thing is happening and its the greatest day of my liiiiiiife!!
As we embark on this wild adventure, I am being hyper vigilant about sharing everything. I know that loads of people would love to restore an old building but for whatever reason canāt do it. So here is me, standing proxy for all of you, cause weāre doing this thing together! (Since weāre in this together can I borrow $20k?) This means, even when Iām dead exhausted and write things like tickle my butt Iām here sharing it all.
Weāre also trying something completely newā¦Vlogging!! You know cause why try to simply raise a family, renovate a 100 yr old building, run a business and brush your teeth every day when you can do all of the above AND become a videographer!?!
In short, posts will be here, daily vlogs on YouTube, insta stories on insta all day son, and my heck if you bring me a snow cone Iāll drop everything to give you a personally guided tour. I like Pomegranate.
You canāt escape me.
So do you want to know what Day 1 uncovered?!
I met our AMAZING general contractor Brent and the plumber at 7:30 this morning. Iāve thought about this for so long and tried to figure out the step by step process during my 3 am obsess sessions and still couldnāt figure it out.
This is what it looks like. First we met with the plumber. The Merc has very little in the ways of water and drainage pipes so we have to trench through the concrete slab to run everything. From the extremely rough sketch that the city had (that was from 1995) the sewer line ran alongside the Merc. Which was great. The plan was to tie into the sewer line just outside the 1st bedroom wall.
We had a plumber (different kind, this one is the kind you call if you have plugged pipes) come and use the coolest contraption to determine where the line actually goes. Its a snake that has a sensor on the end and emits a signal to a handheld tool that tells it where it is and how deep it is in the ground.
Technology.is.freaking.cool.
Guess what?
The line, instead of running parallel to the Merc and down to the road actually runs perpendicular all the way across the parking lot and 4 feet into my next door neighbors yard.
On a scale of idealess this is a -57.
Knowing this, the next step was to have the framer come out and chalk where all of the walls are. This way we can find out the best way to run the plumbing.
Once all of the lines were chalked he sprayed them with clear spray paint, that way regardless of whatās happing on the floors the lines stay nice and clear. Pretty brilliant right?!
This was probably my favorite part of today. It feels so great to be able to see where everything is and the room sizes, to be able to walk the hallways and get pumped about furniture placement. Its my freaking kryptonite.
After the framer left it was time to demo!! Hereās what I learned, sheetrock installed with nails comes off in big sections, sheetrock installed with screws comes off in pieces the size of a cookie. Super lame.
As we were demoing the ceiling in one of the back rooms we found todayās #mercperk, a SKYLIGHT! So cool, except for the part that there was reeeeeeediculous amounts of water damage around it. So yay and also poop.
The last discovery that we made today is the hobbit hallway. Remember when we chatted about the quirks that we just had to embrace? The unique hallway situation was at the top of the list (you can read about it here.) Basically we had to use the openings that were already there because the walls were built out of cinder block. I had the highest of hopes that the smaller doorway had been furred in on all sides and weād be able to make it wider and especially taller
You know what we found? Ciderblock DIRECTLY behind the sheetrock. No studs, no furring, no space for the masses of spiders to chill, nada. Shoot. So we moved on to the top of the doorway and what we found was even worse! A steel beam supporting the cinderblock that had completely come apart from settling. I donāt know how weāre going to resolve this but its critical so weāll figure it out! Any suggestions?
All in all I feel like today was awesome, I canāt wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Check out our Day 1 vlog here, and donāt forget to subscribe so you donāt miss anything!!
Iraqi government declared the city of Mosul liberated on July 9th, after a nine-month offensive to retake the city. Since October, the forces in Mosul have faced the toughest fighting in the 3-year war against the Islamic State fighters in Iraq. Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed and Amnesty International called the battle a āācivilian catastrophe,āā with more than 5,800 civilians killed in the western part of the city. The gruelling battle displaced nearly 900,000 from their homes. Sporadic fighting continues in the Old City, signaling the presence of militants still in the area.
Iraqi families, who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against jihadistds of the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen gathering on an area near Qayyarah on October 24, 2016. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)
Iraqi government declared the city of Mosul liberated on July 9th, after a nine-month offensive to retake the city. Since October, the forces in Mosul have faced the toughest fighting in the 3-year war against the Islamic State fighters in Iraq. Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed and Amnesty International called the battle a āācivilian catastrophe,āā with more than 5,800 civilians killed in the western part of the city. The gruelling battle displaced nearly 900,000 from their homes. Sporadic fighting continues in the Old City, signaling the presence of militants still in the area.
Iraqi families, who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against jihadistds of the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen gathering on an area near Qayyarah on October 24, 2016. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)
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