We can get rid of one of our little progress tracker bars, because all of the demolition work on the back of the house has finally been completed! The dumpster was a very worthwhile expense; we filled it twice, and if we had any more room in there I’m sure I could have found more stuff to pitch.

On Saturday, the back and right walls of the old annex room were still sitting in giant chunks on our back lawn. By noon, they were in bits and pieces in the dumpster. Our neighbors are thrilled to see the mess go and are always quick to give us the thumbs up when they see us outside working. They didn’t seem too sure about us at first, but I think we’re winning them over ;)

Teague and I got to thinking about how much work we’ve actually done on the project thus far; when we added it all up, we were quite impressed with ourselves. We started with a run-down porch and a room that was completely decayed.

Keep reading for a rundown of what’s been done…

We started about midway through March. Here’s what we’ve tackled thus far, roughly in order:

March
• Remove the old porch, salvaging clapboard siding and decorative trim
• Break-up and remove the concrete pad the porch sat on
• Clean out the back room, which was full of junk. Gut the inside (walls, floors, rusted tin ceiling, floor joists, etc.)
• Remove the clapboard siding from the back room so we can use it when we rebuild
• Dig a trench for the back foundation wall

April
• Create a new drainage system for the foundation
• Pour concrete footing and lay two courses of concrete blocks for the back foundation wall
• Pick out the perfect set of salvaged french doors
• Frame up the back wall, including a rough opening for new doors; tie it into the newer roof (built over existing roof by previous owners)
• Pull out the old roof
• Cut the old back and side walls and roofing off of the structure

May
• Pour footing for the right foundation wall

We still have tons to do, but seeing a list of what has been accomplished in less than two months helps us to see how far we’ve already come. Imagine how fast we would move if we had more than one or two days a week to devote to this!