Today Chris and Dennis opened up the wall that have the new dormer. It is somewhat unsettling to have a huge hole on the side of your house. 
The closet has also been removed from that room. Of the three bedroom closets in this house, two are less than two feet deep. We'll make this one bigger, so Charlotte can actually hang her clothes in it. 
Today Chris started working on what will be Charlotte's bedroom. We are replacing the small, low (dangerous) window with a dormer. He's removed the old drywall and insulation and built a temporary construction frame. Hopefully the permit will be ready this week and he can start soon.
Chris worked on removing the hideous drop ceiling on the side porch and examining what was underneath. It appears that a builder used word with fire damage for rafters. The rafters are also pulling away from the siding (not that rafter should be nailed directly into the siding anyway). I guess it is our first unexpected bit of extra work. 
The dumpster is filling up. There was a lot of material in the porch.
With the back porch gone, we saw something that we've never seen before - light shining in through the back kitchen window.
The porch is now completely gone. Chris kindly attached the stairs (including Alistair's railing) to the back of the house, so we can still use the back door. The red door looks a bit odd up in the air. (Note the extension cord coming out through a hole next to the door.)
When we came home from work today, our back porch was gone. The only thing left was the deck framing. The framing is terrible condition - rotten and sagging. It doesn't appear to be held up by anything in the middle. We are relieved that it is gone. It is a very strange sight to see nothing out our back door.
Today the dumpster arrived, and Chris and Brian started to demolish our back porch. Last night we were looking at old pictures of our porch from when we bought the house. Back then (seven years ago), the building inspector said that the porch would need to be replaced, and the were able to drop the selling price a little. The porch looked almost square in the photos, and now it is leaning and parts of the porch are pulling away from the house. You can see in the picture how much the bottom beam is sagging. Nothing is actually touching the middle column. Goodbye porch.
Although Alistair was excited about the truck, he was also a little scared. "Mommy, come up here. You not be scared," he told Alyssa.
Today Colin started to demo the upstairs kitchen. Although we're excited about the potential for the space, it is somewhat sad to destroy what we worked hard to improve. The upstairs kitchen was the first room we renovated when we moved in. Alyssa spent several hot, humid August afternoons inside the cabinets, becoming overwhelmed by primer fumes. Alyssa's Dad once had an adventure with water while swapping sinks (we had waterfalls of water through the downstairs light fixtures). We toned our arms muscles sanding down the bumps in the walls and ceiling (including what we dubbed the Himalayas on the wall next to the archway). Alyssa learned how to tile when she put up the back splash. Alyssa's Dad made origami cabinets. Colin wired some of his first electrical boxes and fixtures. We had some of our first adventures in DIY in our kitchen, so we are somewhat nostalgic before the destruction begins.
Besides the all the DIY, we've also had fun hosting Christmas tree chopping brunches, post Shamrock Shuffle race lunches, Pancake Day pancakes, and countless bowls of oatmeal.
This morning, Colin loaded up the brush pile into the pickup truck. Later Alistair helped by raking up the leftover twigs. Malcolm was busy today priming and painting the trim for Alistair's room.
Today our neighbor brought over his heavy duty pickup truck so we could load it up with our brush pile. Tom used the payloader on his tractor to push the pile closer to the truck. Alistair was fascinated.
Malcolm, Colin, and Colin's Dad have been busy in Alistair's room. The ceiling is painted and the walls are primed.
This afternoon Malcolm and Colin primed the walls and the ceiling. (This was a second coat for the ceiling.) The combination of the two kinds of primer was extremely smelly.
Malcolm and Colin were busy this morning. They finished putting up plywood on Alistair's bedroom ceiling and started to nail up the bead board that Colin primed over the winter.
