Last Wednesday night (June 20th) we were alerted by our demo contractor that demolition would start between 8 and 9 the next morning. Nothing like the first day of summer and a forecast of 2 inches of rain to kick off the fun!

We let work know we’d be in late and chilled the sparkling grape juice to celebrate to destruction of the only home our children have ever known.

Demo began before we got there- I guess they were salvaging the aluminum siding for recycling. That was fine by us. We took a quick video of that before we got a better viewing spot. Because of the rain, we pretty much stayed in the van. We also wanted to make sure we weren’t in their way with the heavy equipment and large trucks that were going to be filled with the remains of our house.

The second video is where all the action happens, but after a bit the kids got a little antsy so we dropped them off at camp and then came back for another peek at the progress. I wish I had turned the audio off as my commentary is a little annoying at times. Oh well. We had neighbors, friends, coworkers, and random people stop by, slow down their driving, and generally freak out a little to see a house totally being ripped to shreds.

I have to give major props to the crew though, they worked quickly and managed to save my plants that I had cordoned off.  I’m really relieved that one in particular survived to bloom another spring (here’s hoping that construction manages to dodge it too).

In all, they took about 3.5 days to take down the house, pull out the basement walls and floor, the garage floor, the driveway, and haul it all away. The “jobsite” (as we’re now calling it because there is no house left) is super muddy and I’m still not convinced that’s it’s free of glass, nails, etc.

I think video is more fun, but I have some after pictures I can share here for those that haven’t ventured over to Facebook or Instagram to see the progress pictures.