80's Half Wall Finally Comes Down!

When we moved into this house it definitely had some "80's" touches to it...for example, our half wall.  I remember when we first looked at this place my first thought was, "how in the world am I going to hang garland from that during Christmas time??"  I know this is clearly a first world worry, but since we have been saving for this house for the past 3 years I figured it was semi-okay.  Thankfully, we have an amazing friend named Jared that has the ability to make our vision for this house a reality.  This project is not quite completed because Tony and I are still in the process of staining the wood and painting the balusters before Jared puts them up!  Given the fact that Tony and I have never stained wood before, we can say that counts for our DIY part.  For now though lets talk about the part that was the most fun, the demolition!

First thing is first, we needed to take down the trim...

 Tony is clearly starting to have fun, but boy is it going to get a lot more fun!

Below is the last look at the half wall!  Jared drew a line where the cut needs to happen.

Now that the trim is down it's time to start cutting!  Jared owns a sawzall which is what we used to make a straight cut through the drywall and 2x4's.

 Tony is having fun using this new "toy" as he thinks of it.  Jared is following behind him with a shop-vac to minimize all the dust. 

Just as an FYI.  Before we started this whole demo project we covered our laminate floors with our old moving boxes for protection.  We also moved all of our furniture out of the way and placed cloth over them for protection.  Lastly, we put carpet protector over the stairs so we don't have to buy all new carpet..gotta save some money any way we can!

NOW it's time for the fun part...putting holes in walls :)  As you can see below, this was the part I was most excited about!

And then there's Tony with the machete...

This part was so much fun that our friend Annie even wanted to partake in it!

And we even made a video for kicks and giggles, so we can look back years and years from now and think....boy was that fun lol...

Alright, well after we had all that fun, it was time to start legitimately tearing down the drywall.  Because we had used the sawzall the drywall was able to come down in big pieces.

There were a few parts that needed the sawzall again, but that was fine with me because it gave me the chance to use it!

 It was so much fun!  I think I should become a carpenter instead of a nurse....

At the end of this awesomely fun demolition this is the final product!  

...But what is to come next is once again a way bigger project than I ever anticipated.  Why does everything look so simple on HGTV?!  Stay tuned for the final final product!