Vintage Life: Bungalow Demolition!

Have you ever dreamed of working out your frustrations with a sledgehammer?  Well my husband and our handyman, Frank, did just that in our 1920s bungalow renovation project.  First to go was that startling yellow-gold front room - down to the studs.

You can already see that the front bedroom in two shades of blue was next to go.

Remember the second bedroom with the seafoam green floor?  Recognize it now?

Beyond the fireplace, you can see the family room.  Here's another shot with that ugly wood paneling on its way out.

We had started deconstructing the whack-a-do fireplace in this photo.

A look toward the kitchen and you're starting to see what a big mess we've created!

Nasty kitchen cabinets are gone - ugly wood paneling is next.

Hallway, schmallway.

We were very excited to find that beneath the popcorn-textured drop-ceiling was the original 10 ft. high beadboard ceiling throughout the entire house!  Here is a view of it in the dining room - it is in mostly very good shape with some areas of water damage in the front bedroom and family room that can be replaced.

Out the front door, you can see the 10-yard construction dumpster that we used to get rid of all of the debris.

Wow - what have we done?  Can we re-build this disaster back into a home?  The demolition phase took about two months and we filled up our 10 yard dumpster three times.  Although we knew it needed to be done, we certainly wondered if we had reached a whole new level of crazy.

Just in case you are a purist and are now furious with us about this demolition, we do not intend to do a historical restoration to our house.  We are renovating and remodeling to make it more comfortable for us and to suit our lifestyle.  However, we do love vintage and antique things and our home will reflect that.  We will restore the original ceiling.  We plan to use vintage cast-iron tubs in the bathrooms.  We'll re-use the original doors, and re-purpose some of the original beadboard as wainscoting.  And of course, there will be a great number of pieces of antique furniture and vintage accessories from our favorite resource for exceptional European and Asian Antiques - EuroLuxHome.com.

So check back in to see what happens next!