Well, today was a much better "work on the house" day. After some consultation with others more experienced than us, we found out that things underneath the house are not as bad as they seemed. However, we have decided that we are going to hire a professional to do the beam replacement instead of trying to do it ourselves. I think we both feel more comfortable with that.

We worked more today on demolishing the bathroom, and since only one of us can really work in there at a time and it's freakishly hot in there with no A/C, Otis worked in the backyard trimming some of the tree branches. And, as promised, I took the camera with me today to document our progress.

Here is a set of the house as it was when we bought it (left), and after we removed the ugly shutters and solar screens. Oh, and it has the new roof (right):

Here are some pics of the opening we are wanting to create between the living room and kitchen. First we tried to get a good idea of where the studs where, marked by the tape ticks at the top. Then we taped off a couple of different scenarios to see which we thought would work better. We decided to open it up through the doorway to make it feel as open as possible. On the kitchen side we ripped out the sheetrock so we could actually see the studs and figure out exactly what we need to do. We'll be reinforcing the structure with 2 x 8 boards in the header to compensate for the load we're taking from the studs. We will have to wait on that until the foundation work is done, as this wall sits right on top of the disintegrated beam.

And finally, the bathroom mostly before we touched it (left), and almost completely gutted (right). We contemplated putting a window into the upper part of the shower area (the black part you see is the exterior wall), but after talking with someone, it sounds like a bigger pain than we want to deal with. We may add a tubular skylight eventually, but for now we'll just install a light fixture above the shower.

We are hoping to remove the toilet and tub this week and get quotes (and hopefully start) on the plumbing, foundation, and electrical work we need to have done. After that it's sheetrock and painting and putting the bathroom back together. Oh yeah, we can TOTALLY get this done before we move in. Right?