The wall before

This is an image of the interior space before the wall was knocked down.  We'll try to get some photos of the house during the day this weekend so you can see the inside better.  And, this kitchen we are replacing with our new ikea cabinets!

Nick flew out to western Colorado yesterday on his company plane to take juniors and seniors in highschool on a fieldrip, can you believe that? He got some nice photos as usual.

Cool wallpaper

Look above my head up there, that was original wallpaper buried under 3 layers of wall that had been built on top of it! It seems as though every room had wallpaper in it at some point. I'm looking forward to seeing what else we find. I actually really like this one here!

Goodbye wall.

Demo! I think one guy may have done all of this in the past two days. Our once low, 8ft ceilings, were torn down exposing the original 10 ft. ceilings. The 1 ft. thick wall with a short, awkward arch doorway, is coming down to join the two front small rooms in the house into one larger family room/dining room combo. We are actually really digging the brick! Maybe we should have a brick wall somewhere? I was against it, Nick was for it, it's not to late but I don't see it working. I can't believe how differnt the space looks already with these few changes.

More pictures of the before

We added the blue porch swing into the contract when we bought the house.  The home itself was first constructed in 1894.  It is called Brown's first addition to new home on the survey.  Demo started yesterday and we learned that the entire front of the home was probably an addition!  The veneer brick, or outer brick, has fine butter joints that are 1/8" thick, which are the nice old kind that are expensive to repair accurately, while maintaining the historic quality.  There is a structural brick behind the veneer, which is a sand brick.  Our front parapet has separated from the interior sand brick - and the entire facade needs to be rebuilt.

View of the front side of the house, including some intricate brick detail.  I have learned alot about masonry since we will need the front parapet rebuilt as well as tuck pointing around the entire house and I started interviewing masons.  

We pulled all the vines down so they couldn't damage the house by growing into crooks and crannies.  

Here's a view from the street.  We have a huge sideyard and a little creek on the South side of the house there where you see the overgrown brush.  Landscaping will have to happen next summer, since late fall is not the best time to plant new plants in snowy Colorado.  It's a cozy place.  More to come. . .

Our new house

Here is our new house, right when we bought it, before even.