A step by step guide to new walls... Schoonover style.

1. Start with torn out lath and plaster walls. Finish framing out weird basement stairwell areas and old chimney location to create a linen closet. (Kitchen stairwell box shown here, top left.)
2. Buy excessive amounts of insulation and suit-up.  Full body coverage recommended. 
3. Cut endless strips of itchy fiberglass to puzzle-piece together for entire kitchen and bathroom.
4. Call in the reinforcements. (Mild supervision required.) 

Further tips:  
Wear neon. 
Don't break the shocks in the Schoonover family station wagon by overloading the vehicle at Lowes.
Be sure to wear the same work gear and utilize the same drilling stance as your twin.

This post is dedicated to our friends who let us shower at their houses.

When the lovely plumber Randy, from Randy Rodgers Plumbing, finally arrived... amazing things began happening very quickly. Old pipes were ripped out, new were pipes put in, and city permits were filed. 

Then we went for a visit to Hippo Hardware.
Whew.  Think 3 stories of old, new and even older hardware piled everywhere you look.  (This nice little notice was discretely posted near the toilets.) A fantastically helpful plumbing guy refurbished our old shower and tub hardware and sold us this beautiful new faucet.  Now we can't wait to use it!

framing

Thanks to the help from these very loveable/stylish schoonovers we now have a new header in the wall-less kitchen.

Kitchen update

Cooking in the garage in the rain vs. new toaster oven

Saw Safety

Ryan is back in the saddle.

The Electricians came!

Hallelujah!

Now, all we need are a few walls, a whole lot of finishing work, and some plaster ceiling patches. (yes, that is a giant ceiling hole around the new bathroom fan/light fixture...?!!)