Seriously, not only did my parents come down, happy to lend a hand, they brought us a trunkload of tools so we could minimize the costs of our biggest project to date. Yesterday was our first day of work, and we planned to tear out the sunroom and buy the materials. Luckily for us, it went so fast that we got a lot more than we planned done.
First we started by removing the huge windows on the side. No pictures of this process, because it was all hands on deck. We eventually got them down (and only broke one little pane!) so we were ready to move on.
Look! No windows!
Next we started tearing out the framing. It turns out, there are times you will be glad that the previous owners of your house know nothing about home improvement. This was one of those times. I swear, caulk and rust was all that was holding that room together.
Then, we started to get really worried. The other wall was just big panes of glass, framed together by wood. We were being super careful, until we hit one of them with the hammer and realized it was safety glass. So we pulled those suckers out, and then came the fun part. We wanted to fit them in the trash can, so we laid them on a tarp, and got out the hammer.
Then we hit a line with the hammer (since it was safety glass, it stayed together). This was the most fun part all day (besides the concrete nailing bullet thingamabob, more on that tomorrow).
Then we just bent it into thirds and put it in the garbage can. Voila.
Then we got the littlest pane out. This was NOT safety glass so extreme caution was required. Including the requisite family stick-out-your-tongue-in-concentration move. My grandpa did it, my dad does it, I do it. People can make fun of us all they want. We know it's just how stuff gets done.
Have I mentioned how much I love my big strong husband. Oooh, muscles, beard, hairy like a lumberjack. I'm swooning right now.
No more walls!
All of this before lunch. Then we trucked it on down to Home Depot for the lumber and nails and junk. So far, we're up to $96 in materials, thanks to a $25 gift card from my big brother. We've gotten the lumber, the door, the nails, and the bullet thingamabobs. Still to come is the door hardware, probably a little more lumber, the screen, staple gun, and a cat door (!). So far we're pretty happy with the costs of this project.
Then, because we rock SO HARD. We started framing a wall. ON DAY ONE!
I'm having a love affair with this saw. If Brett wants to make me the happiest girl on earth he needs to buy me a table saw (now please!). See, look how hard at work I am!
We decided against a knee-wall, which we think will look better and make our job much easier. At the end of the day, we had an entire wall framed and ready for screening (once we let the lumber dry and paint it of course.)
Now on to day two! More to come tomorrow.
