The long weekend was filled with renovation fun. Looking back on it, given that we had 4 days to work on the house, it feels like we could have done a lot more, but at the same time, I guess we did as much as we could. Anyways, here are some pics of the progress…

Friday we had to wait for one of the chimney guys to come give us a quote, and while we waited Chad got antsy and started taking up the tile in the dining room (whilst seated on a chair of course). He was too curious about the hardwood underneath to wait a day to see what it looked like.

The tiles came up fairly quickly, but were super stuck in one spot which was a pain in the butt. The wood looked pretty good and the wood guy is coming tomorrow to confirm that the floor can be saved.

Chad also did not believe in using or wearing any protective equipment.

I decided to go through and pick out paint colours I liked, all of which have now been poo pood by various people. Looking at them again, I still really like them, so I’m not sure what I am going to do. Picking out paint colours has become the bane of my existence. I feel somewhat resistant to peoples opinions on them because I am having a bit of a ‘Designers Moment’ in which I feel that no one really understands the vision I have in my head, for I am the great and mighty designer and I must be trusted in my decisions!

Friday afternoon Chad put together the lawn mower and tried to start it up, but it didn’t work. This made him irate (which Chad never gets) so we had to bring it to Home Depot to see if they could do something to fix it. The guy there finally got it to start only for oil to explode all over the place. NOT GOOD. I could see Chad getting angrier by the minute, which scared me because I am the angry one and he is the calm one, so I hid in the truck while the lawn mower saga continued. They ended up taking it back but had none left in stock, so we had to drive to their Vancouver location in hopes that the guys there were give Chad the same deal he got when he originally bought the lawn mower. I am happy to report that everything worked out in the end and the new mower started with no problem. Thank GOD.

Saturday we had all hands on deck tearing everything out.

Cabinets and appliances were removed.

Ma and I ripped up all the carpet and underlay in the basement.

Tiles came down in quite the pile.

Chad decided to get out of work by blending into the wall.

Lunch on a construction site.

Most of this was all done with out any of my help. I was put on Dump Runs with my father, which turned out to be rather interesting, but I will have to save that story for tomorrow.

Dario was amazing. There was nothing this man didn’t do. I guess it helps to have a construction worker on site. We ended up having to grind off all the cement and crap that was left on the wood floors from the tiles. Dario did all the grinding, again with no protective  gear what so ever. What is with these boys? I feel sorry for his lungs.

This is the aftermath. It was a BITCH and a half to clean. There is still cement dust everywhere. I have washed the cabinet 3 times and yet it is still dirty. I can not tell you how much I hate cement dust.

We got a lot done on Saturday. This is why you hire Italians to do work for you. They get shit done and they get it done fast.

This weekend we will be officially taking down this wall and installing the beam. We have decided against installing posts, which I think will look  better and save us money. In the mean time we are still having quotes come in for the windows, so hopefully we can settle all of that soon and have them ordered!