Everyone loves to use a sledgehammer!

In preparation for the bigger demolition by the construction crew, I wanted to do as much of the basement demo as possible - both for fun, and to cut down on costs! There were definitely things that I needed to leave to the experts, including removing the 2 fireplaces (neither of which was functional)!

I had a lot of help from my dad, brother, niece and nephew, and from Tim and the kids! Everyone wanted a chance to smash down a wall!

Basement and basement bathroom demo involved removing the vapour barrier and insulation from the exterior walls (insulation to be re-used as it was only installed 2 years ago), removing all of the drywall from the interior walls, and taking down the bathroom completely! Since the bathroom was re-done 3 years ago when I moved in, the toilet and faucets will be re-used.

The starting point...

You can see on this one that the bathroom tile was also being taken down at the same time (and went partially through the wall)!

The hallway, which will be moved to a different location during the renovation.

It was tough to see the bathroom torn apart... it went from this:

To this very quickly:

We had fun with the kids taking down walls - they were awesome help and loved it!

Notice the piano... it will remain in many photos! As much as I wanted to keep it, it wasn't worth re-tuning or moving, and it was one of the hardest parts of demolition! More on the piano another time :)