At the end of Day Three, the flooring is gone. There were very nice oak floors in the kitchen, and had we only been redoing that room, we would have patched the flooring where needed. Since we are also redoing the family room (which did not have wood floors), we decided to go ahead and replace the whole kit and caboodle. Painful pocket-wise, but it was the right thing to do.

There was a question as to whether or not they were going to be able to take down the brick surrounding the fireplace (which was behind the marbled tile). Their (the kitchen people) thought was that they may have to go in with serious power tool action and even then, it may not come off, which would mean we would lose two inches of space.

It’s a long story. First of all, the room is narrow to begin with. Our new fireplace will be centered, and therefore needs to come forward in the room a bit, because of the fireplace in the adjacent room.

The real estate photo of the fireplace.

SIDE NOTE: When we first saw the house, we hated the ledge in front of the fireplace. But we used it ALL the time. The girls could do art projects on it and it was a great place to sit. Everyone who came over somehow gravitated towards that ledge. It will be missed in a weird sort of way.

It was a relatively easy job in the end. By mid-day on Day Three, the red brick wall was down. Success.

There were two layers of subflooring in either the family room or kitchen (I don’t know which, but I overheard the guys talking). Here’s one layer, in the dumpster. What are those? Wood parquet? (My husband would know, but he’s down in the basement watching the game and I’d have to go outside in the cold through the garage and then down to the basement to ask him, which I’m totally not doing).

I feel a little better on Day Three with a somewhat workable set-up in the dining room. We’ve got a fridge, the espresso machine, toaster and microwave hooked up. We brought an old dresser down from upstairs to help with storage and counter space, and we have a variety of containers (milk crates, plastic bins, cardboard boxes) for snacks, other dry goods, utensils and the like.

Sure, it’s not ideal, but it could be worse. I miss my morning shakes (and they are SO good you guys), but still enjoy my cappuccino in the mornings, and have managed to make snacks and lunches for the girls without a complete meltdown. It’s super messy and time-consuming with our only water source on this floor down the hall (and a super small water basin to boot), but we’re doing it. Go team.