Wayne Cottage | #demodays

Move over Chip Chip & Jo Jo, the Martins have come to town! If you (really) think that #demodays look like they do on the (totally awesome) show Fixer Upper, let me assure you ... they do not. Demo-ing the inside of our beloved Wayne Cottage took months. Granted, we didn't have a massive crew to come in and do it for us - we did have Mikey (the new Chip Gaines) + our nearest & dearest friends & family that we roped into helping. We painstakingly removed almost 100 year old plaster from the walls (the kind that was made with horse hair) to expose gorgeous structural brick (#swoon), we reworked the upstairs to include a family room, bedrooms, a full bathroom & a 3rd story loft, we pulled termite infested / water damaged floors from the downstairs, we knocked out the old windows to replace them with something that would be energy efficient, we dug up a 10-12" concrete floor on what was the back porch to add plumbing and new concrete in what became the master bathroom, we removed nails from very board that you see in the pictures above - one by one so that new walls could go in, we pulled the old knob-and-tube electric system so new wiring could be installed...and the list goes on. We've sent at least 8-10 dumpsters (like the one pictured) to the landfill with the guts of the house in order to start from the ground up and make this house exactly what we want it to be. 

Y'all, it's dreamy. Mike & I constantly sit back and just soak it in. We dream of the #martinbandofbrothers (& future Martin kiddos) running through the house, hanging from the steel I beam in the kitchen, summering in the back yard, walking to school from here, having sleepovers in the loft...we hope that they're one day proud of this house like we are.  We're still so grateful for the opportunity to work on this house & for what it means to and for our family. 

We're busting it to make an August 1 deadline (hoorah!). Stay tuned for before & afters as we get to them. We're currently finishing floors & ship lap walls that we've laid ourselves (again, with help from family & friends), painting, caulking, staining, etc - all the things that go into finishing a house. We know that we'll be far from finished when we move in, but we'll be home.