Blue Ridge Demo Day

Blue Ridge during demolition. Compare this to the photo of the Villa Park nanny suite below.

This post originally appeared on the Hermit Haus Redevelopment website on 2016-01-03.

It’s unusual that you can say that a house looks better right after you start demolition. The demolition process usually piles trash throughout the house and around it, making it look trashy or even scary. But as you can tell from the picture, the Blue Ridge house is an exception to that rule.

The first thing we did was to take out all of the excess shrubbery behind which the house originally hid. That opened up the front of the house and made it much more inviting. Unfortunately, it also emphasized the damage that is been done to the front arch.

Carol, Sue Ann, and I had previously agreed that we would take down the arches on either side of the kitchen to get the house and more modern look. I think that plan is working, even with the pile of rubble piled to either side of the kitchen.

The interior of the house is pretty much as described in the opening paragraph—trashy. The kitchen and both bathrooms have been gutted to enable a clean, 21st century renovation. The ancient carpets have been removed, and the faux beams have been taken down from the ceilings. All of that debris is stacked in various places around the house awaiting delivery of a dumpster that has been promised by noon Monday.