and so it begins...

we've waited...and waited...and waited...and finally it's time! our claim is processed, our contractor is hired and our walls are gone!

woohoo!

as of right now, we are staying at a hotel down the road. all of the 'suite' type places with kitchens are booked due to the amount of people who are also experiencing displacement due to hurricane ike. by the end of next week we 'should' be in a 3 bedroom apartment, if all goes as planned.

here are some photos of the progress so far (including some before pics to give some perspective to what it is you're looking at...some photos are from before we moved in, some are from after).

KITCHEN:

FAMILY ROOM:

FROM THE MASTER BEDROOM, LOOKING TOWARD THE FAMILY ROOM (the kitchen WAS on the other side of the wall with the stars):

DINING ROOM/LIVING ROOM (divided by the ugly spindles that i hated). the kitchen will now take up what WAS the dining room and the living room will now be a study with a full wall. PERFECT for our needs:

there used to be a step DOWN to the living room. now it's been filled up with concrete so that the floor plan flows better.

and the view FROM the living room (soon to be study) looking TOWARD the family room/entry way/dining room (soon to be greatroom/kitchen). NOTE the window to the left and then look past that...you'll see that the whole wall that created an entry way is history:

as the work continues, i'll be sure to add more photos!