Kulia i ka nu'u: The demolition continues

Now that James is over his pneumonia and his fractured ribs are fully healed, he decided it was time to take a sledgehammer in hand and start "demolishing."

This is formally known as STAGE 2 in our construction process. Stage 2 involves the creation of a new kitchen at the back of the house, removal of the walls between the kitchen and the bedroom and the kitchen and the dining room, a new dining room, and a new half-bath to replace the full bath. Oh, and we'll also be moving the washer and dryer up from the basement and have them plumbed in Janessa and Soren's old room.

Stage 2 will be done by James, not our construction company.

This is a view of Logan and J.B.'s old bedroom, which will become our new kitchen. On the left is the doorway to the hall, then their closet (which will house the new refrigerator) and then behind the mural is the bathtub to the bluebathroom which is on the other side of the wall.

Here is the bathtub that was on the other side of the wall.

James removed the wall between the bathroom and bedroom.

And then he removed the tub. This was no small matter. The tub was cast iron and weighed close to 1000 pounds. He broke some of it up with a sledgehammer (thanks to Youtube for all the videos showing how to break a cast iron tub). Then he and Jansen made tracks with 2x4's and then he pushed the tub out of the house, and around to the dumpster on those tracks.

On one of his backswings with the sledgehammer, he accidentally hit the toilet tank and cracked it. But he quickly stopped the water drip to the basement and within a few days had found and bought a new tank.

Our new back door way highlights some of the building detritus that will make it's way around to the dumpster in the driveway. That blue jagged thing is the tub piece that James broke off in order to A) make it lighter and B) get it out of it's spot.