Beautiful Disaster Part Deux

The lack of posts this week has been brought to you by 

Safety Gear.

Safety Gear: Making DIY remodelers look like total dweebs for decades.

Total dweebs who are, however, NOT in the emergency room.

Here at LIR, we wouldn't dream of tackling a big job without 

goggles, a dust mask, and gloves when necessary.

And we always keep bandaids on hand, because let's face it,

coordinated I am not.

 So for those of you just joining us as we remodel a condo from late 70's cedar sided splendor

to a soothing seaside style retreat for a woman in a wheelchair,

let's peek at the early starts.

Here's the Key West bathroom with its new waterproof roll-in shower deck.

That, and cleaning was all we'd done.

 Thresholds the height of speed bumps and constricting doors were removed.

 Doors were widened from 23" to some widths with clearance!

Which is a very easy job.

 The kitchen was cramped and crammed with too many appliances,

too little storage, no drawers (not one!), ugly tile, and not a single light source.

Unless you count the spider web decoration leaning on the loose tile.

Oh, and it was ugly.

Butt ugly.

 None of the appliances except for the massive washer/dryer worked completely.

 And THAT is the only counter top.

I think it was load bearing.

The loft above the living room was held up by happy thoughts.

The wood work was a lovely rough hewn decorating style

known as "crap", and the decidedly dated chandelier dwarfed the dining room.

Basically, it all had to go.

Once we admitted this, it was sledge hammer time!

Fortunately for me, most of my friends are guys.

Handy guys.

Meet Mark, a buddy of mine for 30 years, who's teaching me the art

of making a space liveable.

Ready for the results?

Master bath.

Closet behind the Master bath.

Closet view from Master bedroom.

See the kitchen through the bathroom?

Nice, huh?

Oh, speaking of the kitchen...

it's in a dumpster.

Living room, about to be more livable.

To the left of the living room, all the hideous room dividers, railings, and 

the Stairway of Death are gone.

(Stairway of Death and commode a disabled woman cannot use.

We'll hide the bodies later.)

Over thr front door.

Dining room.

Florida room.

Clean up commenced.

Hate dust bunnies?

Try shoveling rubble.

Exposing the duct work.

Guest bath.

Please wipe your feet.

I had the weirdest need to pee the whole day.

Basically, we're done destroying.

And you know what that means, right?

Very soon...we start the fun stuff...

Like, TODAY!!!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask

starts Monday here at Life in Rehab!

I promise step-by-step instructions for each project so you can tackle it by yourself too!

And as always, entirely too many photos.

(Chipper tool rented to break the floors out in record time.)

Meet us back here, and bring your goggles!!!