Nov 07 Results of the plans

Once we had final plans... or near final anyway, we realized that there were so many changes that trying to save any exterior or interior walls would be counter productive. We had hoped to save the existing main floor bath since it was nearly identical to the planned one but the presence of mould behind some of the walls answered that. When we went to demolish the bathroom walls it was well over a month since anyone had showered there and the drywall behind the tile (note what was behind the tile.. not cement board) was still soggy.

There are several options in house demolition. One would be an act of great drama where an incident such as lightning or local vandals would set the place ablaze and it would be leveled. Since this did not happen we pursued other options. Demolition companies will come in with heavy machinery and tear apart a house in a few days. If you want to salvage parts such as the foundation, they must work more slowly and hence charge more money. In the end our interest in salvaging as much as possible and balancing costs lead to essentially reverse construction or un-building (There is a great book out by Taunton press titled "Unbuilding" that I did not read in advance... it might have been helpful). So we began taking the house apart from the top down.