Renovating a Small Business Building

If you are here looking for the next part in the {Organic} Raised Garden Bed series, it will be back. But I am in a holding pattern right now with the garden because I have two more weeks until I am able to plant anything outside in my region. I am so happy that I follow that advise of my Grandfather, he always said to not plant anything outside until after Memorial Day. Well we had a frost last night, and it would have killed everything if I didn't listen to him!

So what have we been doing to keep busy? WELL...

My husband owns a small used car dealership with his father. They are planning on a move June 1st to their new location. But that location needed to be completely renovated. And I mean completely! We have spent the past weekend tearing out walls, stripping hideous wallpaper and teaching ourselves how to install windows and doors. This is by no means a DIY post, because I wouldn't even know where to begin to tell somebody else how to do what we have been doing. I am just showing you the pictures with descriptions and will keep you informed to the progress. I am hoping for some pretty remarkable before/after pictures from this project. And don't worry, I am still tending to my indoor garden until I can safely move the veggies outside!

After a minute of showing our little guy how to use leverage to remove the molding around the entire room, he went to town taking down everything waist level and below. He had a blast destroying it all.

 

He was off and running on his own!

 

 The oldest son enjoys anything that he can deconstruct. He was going as fast as he could to be able to rip the most down off the walls.

After all the molding was down, it was time to remove the paneling that was covering every surface of the front office. And what did we find underneath it...

 Lots of water damaged drywall and insulation. It was carefully removed with ventilation masks and eye protection. It started smelling better after that was all removed.

 Once the paneling was removed, we thought it was just ugly foam board insulation, nope, drywall (yea!) but covered in hideous wallpaper. Our wallpaper removal team was on it. We had a contest to see who could pull the biggest piece, winner got a hug from me. Oldest boy won, and he gives the best hugs :)

 Now to the outside! We needed to remove the siding part way to get the new window put in correctly. It is a standard size window, bought off the shelf at the home improvement store. Hubby did tons of online research to learn how to do this correctly.

 Tons of measuring to make sure all the 2x4's were cut to the correct length the first time. Also used the shop vac alot as there were nails flying everywhere.

 The boys were just the right height to help hold up boards from the outside of the building!

Here is the window all put in! He is reworking it a little this week as he discovered he needed to put the new wall board up first then the window in after. That way if it ever needs to be replaced in the future, you don't need to rip down the siding or wood to get the window out again.

Well this will truly be one of the biggest adventures that my family has ever taken on. But with the help of family and friends, we are getting it done. Hubby is working on the office during the week while I am at work, so I won't have as many pictures during his progress. I will head out there each night to take a few and see what they accomplished during the day. I know they put in a French Door in place of one of the windows! Excited to get to the after pictures...

 

Note: the Fleur-de-lis was FLOCKED! 

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