I have re-arranged this page so that it is organised first by room, then chronologically - Top of the list is the starting point, with the progress showing as you go down the list.

When we bought the house, we knew that the big room was not permitted.  What we learned subsequently was that the roof leaked, and the ceiling and rugs were mildewing.   So we decided to tear it down, and redo the bathrooms while we were at it.   And then we decided to remove all of the wood panelling from the interior.   Followed by redoing all of the floors to avoid transitions of  less than 1 inch from the bathrooms.  Then we decided to put new in counter tops in the kitchen.   And we decided to remove the window in the front room and put in a bay window.

And we became:

This is our story.  It is a happy one.  Except for the bees.

The Bees

• This picture was taken inside the attic, immediately after discovering the bees
• The bees built their comb down inside the wall, next to the chimney, like this
• So we had to make a hole in the wall to clean them out, and clean out the comb.  The honey comb is food and will attract other critters
• Patched and waiting for paint. (The cow is there to get the camera to focus.)

Big Room

• From the dining room into the big room  (Apr. 6)
• Back towards dining room
• Book case
• Mold, inside
• Mold, outside
• The alley way between the big room and the master bedroom
• A view from the dining room into the big room (Apr 29)
• Just the big room
• From the big room towards the dining room, to the right
• From the big room towards the dining room, to the left
• Mostly empty (May 1)
• The destruction starts
• More destruction
• An interior view of the destruction
• Another interior view of the destruction
• A support post showing mildew & rot
• Another support post showing mildew & rot
• The ceiling showing mildew and rot
• The ceiling crumbled at the touch of a hand
• The big room mostly gone (May 2)
• Another view of the mostly gone room
• A sea of rubble is all that's left (May 3)
• Another view of the rubble
• Smoothing the concrete for the floor (May 10)
• The framing starts (May 11)
• Framing & scaffolding
• A bolt holding the frame to the concrete
• The framing is making progress (May 12)
• More framing and scaffolding
• The ladder holding up the framing
• Framing, from the dining room into the big room
• More earthquake proofing
• Shearwall (plywood) going up (May 15)
• More shearwall
• An interior view
• More scaffolding and framing
• More scaffolding and framing (May 16)
• We have a partial roof (May 19)
• Where the dining room and big room roof lines meet
• Mostly roofed
• The house was tarpped in case of rain
• The eaves
• Water in the big room (May 22) (See also Master Bedroom below)
• The new power panel, from the back side of the panel
• Our old power panel
• The new power panel, from the front side of the panel
• Our new window, from the inside
• Our new window, from the outside
• I stored packing boxes in the dining area (May 31)
• Our new French doors
• Sheetrocked (Jul 5)
• After the 1st application of stucco (Sep 3)
• After the 2nd application of stucco (Sep 9)
• The TV (Oct 8)

Dining Room

• From the kitchen towards the fireplace (Apr 6)
• The door to the alley way
• From the kitchen towards the fireplace (Apr 29)
• The fire place (May 1)
• The destruction, from the big room towards the dining room
• The ceiling in the process of being removed & remodeled (May 5)
• The ceiling is missing (May 9)
• The fireplace all alone
• From the big room towards the dining room, with re-bar
• The fireplace again (May 10)
• The roof and ceiling over the kitchen as seen from the dining area (May 16)
• The new ceiling and roof over the big room (May 17)
• A partial roof (May 19)
• The pantry area framed in
• The fireplace
• Water in the dining area
• From the kitchen, through the dining area, into the big room (Jun 20)
• The fireplace
• The fireplace - insulated (Jul 5)
• The fireplace - Sheetrocked
• Closeup of fireplace (Jul 10)
• Fireplace & temporary dining area (Aug 8)
• Our interior doors
• Molding detail (Aug 18)
• The new fan (Aug 29)
• Our dining table (Oct 5)
• The pantry shelves

Kitchen

• Through the kitchen towards the dining room.  Our plywood wall (May 1)
• Through the kitchen towards the dining room.  Our plywood wall (May 16)
• Through the kitchen towards the dining room.  Our plywood wall (May 27)
• Our old kitchen counter & cooktop (Jun 20)
• The back counter, moved out from the wall (Jun 25)
• Major deconstruction - sink area (Jul 22)
• Major deconstruction - stove top area
• Scanning the sheet rock.  Right most, center, left most (Aug 11)
• Our new granite counter top (Aug 18)
• The kitchen sink
• Tile detail
• More tile detail (Aug 29)
• The kitchen fan
• Kitchen light
• The sun tunnel (Aug 30)
• Looking towards the dining area (Oct 5)
• The new lighting fixture
• The back counter (Oct 8)

Front Room

• The display cabinet before being filled (Apr 21)
• Moving stuff into the front room, before deciding to replace the floors & what not  (Apr 25)
• A view of the computer niche  (Apr 29)
• The display cabinet and futon
• A comment from the supervisor
• Josie's doll house and secretary
• Looking towards the front door (May 27)
• More of the front room
• More of the front room
• Looking down the hallway
• Looking at the wall
• Our new floor (Jun 16)
• Unidentified object (Jun 20)
• Our new bathtub (Jul 5)
• The front window is missing (Aug 2)
• From the outside
• Partially done
• The bottom is boxed in
• Josie playing (Aug 13)
• The new front door, from inside the house (Sep 3)
• Looking towards the bay window (Oct 5)
• Looking back towards the kitchen area
• The front door with the first coat of finish (Oct 8)

Hall Bath

• Stuff (May 27)
• More stuff
• Looking back towards the door
• The bathroom floor (Jun 16)
• The bathroom ceiling
• Looking from the hallway into the bathroom (Jul 5)
• The floor
• The bathtub in its proper place
• The tile floor in progress (Jul 17)
• The bathtub tile going up
• The tile floor (Jul 22)
• Floor, tub, & tile
• The vanity with top (Aug 2)
• The toilet before final install (Aug 8)
• Swimsuits drying (Oct 5)

Hall

• Looking down the hall towards the front door (Jun 7)
• The heater (Jun 16)
• The ceiling
• The new heater, which is in the ceiling, above the hallway (Jun 20)
• Looking towards the front door (Oct 5)
• Looking towards the linen closet

Josie's Room

• Looking through the door (May 27)
• Her bookcase
• Her bed
• Partially packed (Jun 4)
• The escaped hatch (Jun 7)
• The floor, with the carpet removed
• The panelling removed (Jun 25)
• Josie's room painted (Aug 2)
• Her bed (Aug 8)
• Her fan
• From the hallway looking in (Oct 5)
• Aretha on the bed
• The headboard

Master Bedroom

• Rain on the inside of the house (May 22)
• Rain on the blinds inside the house
• The roof under the tarp
• From the bath looking towards the backyard wall (May 27)
• The closet
• A stack o' books
• From the front door, while packing (Jun 4)
• Looking into the room (Jun 7)
• Our closet floor (Aug 2)
• New fan (Aug 29)
• Our paper curtains (Oct 5)

Master Bath

• Our new plumbing (Jun 20)
• The shower area (Jul 5)
• Shower floor - hot mopped
• The pocket door
• The wall cabinet (Aug 2)
• The vanity in rough form
• The shower niche
• The granite top on the vanity
• A close-up of the top
• Josie's shower head in OUR bathroom (Aug 8)
• Our new medicine cabinet (Oct 5)
• Our shower

Front of House/Garage/Drive way

• Our sand & gravel that went into the back yard (May 5)
• Cement truck & pump.  It took of these trucks to pour the slab (May 10)
• This is the trailer our stuff is going into.  It is a full size shipping container (Jun 1)
• Our new rain gutters (Jun 20)
• Our new roof (Jul 5)
• The front porch (Jul 22)
• Front window & brick
• Garage Gable
• The front porch (Jul 23)
• Front window & brick
• Garage Gable
• The outside of the kitchen (Aug 2)
• The porch (Aug 11)
• The bay window
• Our old planter box (Sep 9)
• The porch after the 2nd application of stucco
• The front door, from the outside
• The bay window
• Prepping for paint (Oct 5)
• More prepping for paint
• The garage (Oct 8)
• The outside of the big room

Inside of the Garage

• The garage is filling up  (May 10)
• Another view of the garage
• And another
• The ceiling/roof in the garage (May 16)
• Another view of the ceiling/roof

Back computer room

• The bookcase from the big room (Apr 25)
• Looking towards the hallway (May 27)
• Looking towards the computer
• And still more stuff
• Thea looking very unhappy (Jun 4)

Cat room

• Empty room, looking from the hall (Jun 7)
• Looking towards the hall
• Floors in progress (Jul 14)
• The move-in has started (Aug 8)
• From the farback room (Oct 5)
• Looking towards the hallway

The FAR back room - we needed space to put things, other than storage

• Starting the cleaning and packing (Apr 21)
• The packing gets underway (Apr 25)
• Another view of the same
• The room is filling up (May 10)
• More of the room filling up
• Still more
• Thea found a place to hide, on top of the bed (May 27)
• Her closeup