The picture with the big hole in the floor was taken about half way thru the process. We had to find a way to get the old soil pipes out of the walls and detached from the sewage system. It was horrible! The original tub must have weighed 700 pounds. It took three of us to slide it out the old back door. Linoleum tile had been installed half way up the walls in the bath. It was dark, small and a place i had nightmares about.here

The best room in the house was still the living room. But the ceiling had fallen in due to leaks in the dormers. The floors were scared and stained with paint and various other stuff. The fireplace was workable, but we choose to seal it and use non-vented gas logs. The old mantel had no style, so we knew we wanted to dress it up and the exposed brick on the fireplace was nice, but not what we had in mid. Eventurally we would install tile over the brick and hearth.

My grand mother was fond of her Pondarosa Pine wall in the living room, but i had no choice but to cover it up. Over the years, it had been poorly painted and streaks of paint ran down the walls, so stirping the walls was going to be a long task.

It wasn't too long after this picture was taken that about 6 of my best friends showed up to help me install sheetrock. None had ever instaled rock before, but that day we installed about 60 pieces of 4 x 8 foot sheets of 1/2 inch sheet rock. I think they had a good time helping me, but the damn near worked me to death. They hauled it in, and i did the screwing and nailing.

Pam Ryan came over to see what was going on and to check on her husband and the boys. Just as she walked into the front door to see the incredable mess, we had a small accident. Two sheets of rock we had just tacked into place in the living room pull loose from the ceiling and came crashing down on top of us. Pam left soon after that and went to see my wife Alice at our home on Pepper Road. I think when she walked in the kitchen from the patio, she just huged her and said "Oh Alice, I am soooooooooooo sorry."

Ohhhhhhh ye of little faith. I knew it was going to get a whole lot worse before it got any better and it took almost two years of work to finally get it to a point that my sweet bride could enter the house and not leave in tears.

I watched "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks and the girl from Cheers the night before i wrote this and looking back, all the work seemed like fun, but during the process it took its tole on both of us. But.....We love it now.