I slept for 14 hours last night. Twenty days ago, my dad and my brother Pete, a carpenter, made the 1,913 road trip from Athens, Georgia, all the way to Tempe, Arizona. Their mission: remodel the first floor of my house. An hour after they got to the house, we went out for dinner and we began sketching out ideas, refining lists, and making priorities. 450 hours later, the three of us swept up the sawdust in the garage and packed up their truck.

Here are some photos from the project…

Me and Matt O. knocking out the lower cabinet that divides the family room from the kitchen. Although we’ll have to be creative about finding new storage space, it was worth getting rid of this barrier so the house would feel bigger. (Notice the red retro TV on top of the new, larger TV.)

The Pergo, carpet, and linoleum were all pulled up and tossed out in the dumpster. We are ready for tile. The doors were removed in the foreground, and the lower cabinet is all gone in the floorplan feels more open. Shortly after I moved into the house, I removed the upper cabinets. So standing in this space, this is the first time you can see the fireplace.

Pete spent most of his time in the garage cutting up wood. He’s quite the talented carpenter. I never though I could make 15 trips to Lowes in 20 days. You would not believe the sawdust that built up on my driveway.

Dad was a soldier. He knocked out this tile and then spent the rest of the day chipping out thinset underneath. On the left used to be cheap carpet. It’s all covered with beautiful travertine now. (More photos to come later.)

This is the 2nd time in my life that I’ve rented such a huge dumpster for my driveway. If you ever do a remodeling project, it is wise to get the dumpster on the very first day. It’s hard to demo a house if you don’t have a place to put it. This dumpster was 20 feet long and 6 feet deep.

Candyce is pretending to use a nailer. She’s so cute. Pete built 60 inch judge’s paneling all around the kitchen and family room. In this photo, you can see the bare MDF (medium density fiberboard) and wood filler. This eventually got sanded, primed, and painted.

I would say we’re about 3/4 of the way through the project. We started a lot, and we finished a lot, but we didn’t finish everything. I think that realistically, I’ll have weekend projects for the rest of 2007 and probably into 2008. I’m too tired and delirious to think about that now.

My brother and father poured their heart and soul into my home. I have never witnessed other adults working so hard for so long. It’s the kind of thing only family would do for one another. I’m just in awe of how much we got done.

Thank you Pete! Thank you Dad!