Twas the Night Before Moving Day

And all through the house, every creature was stirring, from the master to the mouse. All of the beams were placed under the house with care, in hopes that moving morning soon would be there! It is the night before our house takes its grand parade route through town and we are giddy with excitement. The combination of nerves and worries is a cocktail of emotions that has us woozy with anticipation. But as we await the joys and trials we know tomorrow will bring, it is a good time to think back on how far we have come in the past few weeks.

Bay Window Removal

Our home features two bay windows on opposite sides of the house. The front room bay windows are currently facing north and have survived the years in great condition. The bay windows on the south side of the home, in the dining room, have not been as fortunate. Time and mother nature have not been in their favor. When we started demoing the dining room, we could hear the squirrels frantically trying to find an escape as we hammered plaster off the ceiling and walls. After opening the walls, we found what can only be described as the portal to h-e-double-hockey-sticks! The insulation in the southwest wall was CRAWLING with cockroaches. The only saving grace was that we had discovered this very unpleasant finding on a brisk 10 degree Kansas winter day and the speed at which the cockroaches were moving could be described as glacial. Had we made that discovery on a 100 degree Kansas day, I can confidently say I may have burned the house to the ground!

After the cockroach invasion of 2022, we also discovered that the framing holding up the two west windows had deteriorated into saw dust. Structurally it was starting to look like the windows needed to be removed ASAP. We decided that taking the windows out also worked well with our new first floor layout. We plan to put a wrap around porch around 2 sides of the home and taking off the south bay windows would allow us to insert french doors in that opening which will lead out onto the new porch. We contacted Brennan Johnson of Elite Construction, a local construction company and good family friend, to come in and help us with the removal.

FREEZING Days Are Good For Demo

Not a single day we worked on the house in the month of December was above the temperature of 32 degrees…..yikes! On December 22^nd we set a record of -35 degree windchills, so naturally we decided to work on the house December 23^rd. It warmed up to a beautiful -13 degrees for a high that day. Not sure how we possessed ourselves to work, but none the less we got most of the plaster removed from the living room and a lot of demo done in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. A few days later, we were able to get the living room completely plaster free and ready for lathe removal. By the end of the day Jan 4^th we had 90% of the first floor completely demoed.

Preparing for The Great House Move of 2023

Unruh House Moving was scheduled to arrive the morning of Tuesday, January 10^th to begin their preparations for moving our home. We decided to bring in some reinforcements Monday to help us clear a lot of last-minute items off our to-do list. One of those items was to demolish the existing fireplace. The mantel for the fireplace was original to the home and is an absolute work of art. We plan to recreate a fireplace in the parlor room on the first floor, using the original mantel. But as for the existing brick and location, it had to go in order to move the home safely. We began tossing bricks at about 10am, and finally finished hauling the last brick out of the home around 5pm. Another messy job to add to the messy job list!

Christmas Fun

We hope you all had a blessed and joyous Christmas! We were fortunate to spend time with family and enjoy a few days without work or house duties.

We cannot wait to update you on how our house move goes tomorrow! Until next time!