It’s official, the remodel has begun

Upon returning from our vacation in California we came home to find this:

No, this wasn’t a surprise. It was no coincidence that we had our contractor start the demolition of our main floor while we were out-of-town. Figured we may as well steer clear of the noise, mess, etc. at the start of it at least. Know it will be unavoidable though going forward – especially since we have plans to stay put throughout the Christmas season.  But despite the premeditated nature of the destruction, it was still a little jarring to open our front door to this:

Whoa! It was the visual cue that we had finally officially begun our construction – a day I, at varying points, thought might never come. Here’s where there used to be a wall and cabinet between the kitchen and family room, you can see the framing and pipes, all of which will be removed/moved to create an open area.

Some of the materials have arrived for framing, windows, and even kitchen fixtures like our sink. For now its all just hanging out in our garage as a staging area. Thankfully no snow yet (a miracle to have a post-Thanksgiving weekend without the white stuff!) but when it comes, we’ll be scraping our cars until the 2×4’s are out of my garage.

And last night I cooked our first meal in our make-shift kitchen in the basement,  roasted salmon with broccoli and parmesan noodles. Had to keep it super basic because this is what I was working with!