Oh Happy Dayyyyy!

That is the song that sprung into my head the minute I woke up on Monday morning.  I didn’t care that I was up early, because on that day, we were not about to battle Route 80 all the way to work.  We were going to battle Route 80 on the way to our house, so we could meet our contractor and start the demolition of our house!

That take-on-the-world-attitude I was sporting for the first hour of the day slightly diminished as the hubs and I proceeded to sit in traffic for almost 3 hours to get to our house.  Yes, we left Blairstown at 7AM and got to the house close to 10AM.  Route 80 struck again (what else is new).  There was a jack-knifed tractor trailer closing lanes down and creating massive delays.  This horrendous traffic caused me and the hubs to start our typical “Whippany, Whippany” chant in the car.  We tend to do it multiple times a day when one of us feels the need to point out how desperate we are to move into our house.  The majority of the time it can be heard when we are sitting in traffic, dreaming of how our lives will change when we no longer need to spend such a large chunk of our day trapped in the car, fending off our road rage.

But anyway, back to the demo.  When we FINALLY arrived at the house, we were slightly perplexed by the absence of a large construction vehicle that should have been parked in our driveway.  We looked at each other, and I said, don’t even tell me that he isn’t coming.  Then the hubs spotted a toilet sitting next to our garbage can and we let out a deep sigh of relief.  (I never thought I'd be so happy to see a toilet sitting in my driveway.)  We opened the car doors and were greeted by a loud bashing of metal on tile.  It was music to our ears.  We headed inside to see our contractor’s main guy ripping apart our master bathroom, and he was heading through our master closet.  Next thing you know, our contractor was back and joined him in ripping out the several inch thick plaster and mesh walls that were hiding underneath our tile.

As a reminder, this is how things started out….





And this is how they progressed….

Broke through the master bath into the master closet.

The back wall of the master closet is still in tact, for now.

Debris pile that was forming outside the master bedroom window...and the hubs in the background.

Broke through the master bath into the main bath.

Now you can see through the master closet into the former master and main baths.

Clear view into the main bath from the master bedroom.

Working on top the piles of debris until they can get moved to the dumpster the following day.

Taking it back to the studs.

And this is what was left at the end of the afternoon….

View from the master bedroom, through the former master bath door, into the old main bath area.

View through the master closet into the former master and main bath spaces.

View into the master bedroom while standing on a pile of debris in the former main bath.  This new main bath is going to be so much more spacious!

I was shocked that the two of them made such great headway and got through gutting the master bath, the main bath and the master closet all on day numero uno.  It was so amazing to see the transformation happen.

When the guys wrapped up around 3:30, we gave the contractor a deposit for some much needed new windows, which would be ordered the next day.  (Four or five of our windows have cracks in the single pane glass, and about 95% of them can be opened and closed only by The Hulk, or the hubs.  We desperately need some energy efficient, workable windows.)  Our contractor informed us he’d be back the next day with a couple more guys so he could get through as much demo as possible.  The hubs and I were so antsy for the next work day to come and go, so we could see what else would be torn to shreds.  Woohoo for progress!