Remodel. Day 8.

We were up WAY too late last night, packing up the Family Room and doing laundry, in hopes that today would begin the Big Family Room Tear-Out. Ken unplugged everything in the back of the TV (there are a zillion cords and cables. I would never be able to keep anything straight. But he had his little sheet of Avery labels, and now everything knows where it belongs)

Hello, Two Aye-Em. I don't really want to see you again any time soon.

And then it was 645am, and time to get the kids going, seeing as they all had to be ready to leave at the same time, so an adult could be here to help with the Heavy Lifting, once the flooring crew arrived.

But why did I worry? Ken took the kids to school, and I packed up the last few bits of stuff from around the hearth and on my desk. And when Maurice and Louis arrived, they were all burly and macho, and "Don't you pick up anything, Ma'am, just point where you want us to put things".

Boo yeah.

So they put heavy paper down over my unfinished oak floor, and then moved the furniture onto it. It looks Just Like Home, if you don't look too closely at the wide blue painters' tape holding the dark red paper down onto the floors. And they even took the computer desk upstairs to Kelly's room. I was glad I took the few extra minutes this morning to vacuum, instead of having breakfast.

And then they got to work.

It wasn't too long before the Family Room was empty, and not looking anything like I remember...

We'd thought of letting the kids go to town with Magic Markers on the carpet, but the time line was just so fast! One minute, we had a family room cluttered with stuff, the next, there were two guys with carpet knives, slicing and dicing, and then...

BLAMMO!

Hmmm. Looks like someone painted BEFORE putting in the carpets... Actually, that's a pretty smart idea. Although it makes me think that we're operating with the Original Coat Of Paint in the family room. Ick. Time for a Color Change!

And then I realized that it was "EEK!" almost time for me to be Guitar Lady at the library, so I ran off. But first I made sure that the guys knew that I'd made Hamburger Soup for them, and where the bowls were, and where the cheese was, and where the bread was, and where the sodas were, and to make themselves at home and eat when they were hungry.

When I came home, I hardly recognized the place.

Remember this cupboard (Seen here behind Skip's "Could have been the Coolest 80's Retro Hairdo EVER" style)?

What's there now?

Hmm. Lots of empty air, I guess.

I'm kind of bummed that I missed seeing that great demolition. It would've been genius to get that on film.

But the kids were enthralled (eek, and can I say it's Minimum Days because of conferences, and I nearly FORGOT to pick up the kids? I was THIS CLOSE to driving off for a few hours, when I saw a friend of mine driving towards the school, and thought "Hmm. Kari NEVER drives up to the school. I wonder what's up...? Oh crap! U-TURN!") and were quite happy to help me sell ice cream at the middle school (not having Minimum Days this week) and then come home to watch the guys work their construction magic.

I wasn't expecting to lose that cupboard, though, and now I've got this chaos on the remaining kitchen counters. That was my hiding place for all the cereals, and all the tea/coffee supplies. Oh, and all the 'odds and ends' that I hadn't found places for while I was packing up the rest of the kitchen. So I kind of feel like I'm back to square one, in a way.

But look at those guys go. They're laying 1-inch plywood with amazing speed and facility.

Tile should arrive on Thursday.

Stay tuned for "What Mystery Was Unearthed!"