Nell and I are getting ready for demolition here at home. I'm trying to warn her at least. The plan as it sits in my head, goes something like this: I begin by cutting a new window in the north wall of the addition. The wood heater comes out and our computer desks will go out there for the Summer while I begin dismantling the north end of this trailer.

In typical Brianization style, I have not planned anything further than that. Nell and I will figure what to do with the space we've created after we cross this first bridge.

I kind of figure that one of the benefits to living in a shack is we don't need an engineer's approval.
Basically Brian Breaks out the chainsaw and crap begins to fly. When the dust settles we will see what we have.

Making-the-First-Cut-in-House-June2012   Well the sawzall isn't nearly as quick and gratifying as cutting a hole in the house with a chainsaw, but it gets the job done and it is a little quieter. Above I'm making that fateful first cut and it felt great. 

Making-the-First-Cut-in-House-June2012  I've got new blades for the Sawzall, but I did not dig around looking for them. I'm actually pretty sure they are in the toolbox drawer labeled,"Blades," but the point is, the blade which was in there, got the job going.

Getting going is 99% of the effort for me.  Gathering tools and supplies is equally important, but that first step is critical.

Making-the-First-Cut-in-House-June2012 – Oh man, the light coming in changed the feel of this once dark corner of our house. It was going to get even better once the studs and blocking are out of there.

Making-the-First-Cut-in-House-June2012 -  Blocking out, As you might have guessed we're recyclers, those studs once removed, are relocated to create the bottom and sides. In an effort to keep this simple I didn't create a header.

Making-the-First-Cut-in-House-June2012 _  A header normally goes above the window, but after removing several pieces from the outside I wasn't any closer to gaining proper access to the area above the window. A header holds the wall above a window or door up. I made the decision to go without a header. This isn't a load bearing wall. I may regret this decision later, but that's something we'll deal with if and when a problem arises.

Making-the-First-Cut-in-House-June2012  "How's this look honey?"  We're thrilled. This simple progress gives us hope that we're not completely out of our friggin minds thinking we can remodel our home short of money and a plan

Making-the-First-Cut-in-House-June2012-perfect – Nice, it came out level  and square

New-Morning-Window-June-2012-First-dawn 

New-Morning-Window-June-2012-outside – yep I still have work to do. I'm deciding if I should reuse the boards I pulled off the wall, because they now have a beautiful patina of Barnwood. When we get our project done we'll stucco the exterior so the barnwood will be covered. That is something we can leave until later and we may just put that off for now. Anyway the finest Barnwood is on the East side, this northside isn't colored nearly as nicely.

New-Morning-Window-June-2012-upper-section  These boards are from my parent's dear friends Cal and Norma. Norma passed away around the same time as my father. Cal is now living in a senior home. Their daughter asked Jack and I if we wanted any of the stuff they didn't take. We loaded up a huge load on the Red Blazer, or White one I don't recall which, except these boards were part of a shelf system in their basement. They were 48 inches long. You might wonder what good a four foot long board could be, then shortly after storing them for a couple months, bingo, we dig out a 48 inch window from another storage pile.  Hoarding can have benefits in rare occasions.   

New-Morning-Window-June-2012-detail They are pretty boards, and they are already finished!

New-Morning-Window-June-2012-detail – I'll still need to do trim-work, but then again, I never did the trim-work on any of the other windows in the Addition. On the way into town yesterday Nell and I were discussing what in the world we are going to do with our new space once we cut the trailewr in half and demolish the north end.

Well first of all we need a name from this new project so we can distinguish it from our other projects: We decided to call this project, "The Shell."

Okay, I need to list the priorities for The Shell:
In no particular order.
Clean off my desk
Move the WiFi cable from the trailer to the new Morning Window area.
Setup the WiFI router
Nell has already gotten a good start on clearing her desk
Both desks are going out there today
Make a decision on either removing the roof over The Shell or leaving it for now and supporting the structure temporarily.
Once the trailer is demolished, we'll have two gaping holes to the outside world and we'll be exposed to the wilds. One giant opening will be the cut off section of trailer, the other will be the wall behind t//-/*cghbvvvvvvhe washing machine.
Obviously a high priority will be closing our house back in.

We're trying to imagine what this space will be.
Important to us before it gets cold, is relocating the kitchen, hot water heater, and washing machine and to a central location, then figuring out where while being close to the hot water heater, a bathtub, shower, and lavatory sink in the next phase of this project can be located.

I think we've come up with the new space is a large kitchen first.  Iif we can fit a new laundry room with hot water heater in it, that would be ideal. We are so tired of living within ear shot and visual of the noisy washing machine and hot water heater, it has become a number one priority getting them moved.
That leaves the toilet,  bathroom, master bedroom, dressing room, for phase two and final demolition of the trailer.
Other things to consider:
We've got three steel clad wooden double doors and windows we got from Jose years ago, which I was planning to install in Mom's house, but I gather from the Johnson – Rodgers  family that they don't want my help on Mom's house, so we'll use them here.
It's about time I focused on us and our house anyway.
 

New-north-window-June2012

New-north-window-June2012

New-north-window-June2012-Better-Barnwood