Chapter 11 - Exterior Demolition

If you thought the outside of the house was a little sad and dumpy before, then we have added "demolished" and "dismantled" to the picture. Steve and Steven completely ripped off the face of the front entrance. It had to be done. A little repair and paint job would be like putting lipstick on a pig and who wants to kiss a dressed-up pig? Or buy a house with zero curb appeal? We are completely changing the facade of the house to change the entire look and it's personality.

The front entrance used to have a low overhang that made the entry very dark, like walking into a cave, certainly not inviting. The outside foyer was taken down and then the balcony, which was rotten through and very unsafe, was destroyed. The entrance will change radically when we add a very open, 2-story portico with rock pillars and 14 feet tall front doors.

With the front of the house liberated and ready for a new contemporary make-over, we moved to the back of the house to continue our destruction. The 2nd floor balcony off of the master bedroom was covered in decayed artifical grass and Steve pulled up the floor boards piece by piece. Then, he took down the beams. In the matter of a couple hours, we had a 2-story free-fall to the cold hard concrete patio below that if we ever get too discouraged with this project, we can use for relief and escape. Ha.

Our annihilation advances to the side of the house where the garage door and driveway is located. The utilities - power and cable are already located here but we are adding gas and water to the house this week. The house has always been on a water-well but in our inspection we discovered that the well pump was broken. We also discovered that to subdivide the 1-acre land, we would be required to hook up to City Water. Thanks to a state program, we are able to hook up to the water line for a minimal fee. The City will pay 85% of the cost but of course, take our water rights as payment. We need to dig a trench from the street through the driveway to connect a water pipe to the house.

And while we are at it, we are hooking up to the City Gasline since natural gas is preferred for the kitchen appliances, heating/air-conditioning and water-dryer hook ups here in Las Vegas and is a big selling point. To allow the utilities access to the house, both of the Steves had to help jackhammer half of the driveway which was completely exhausting using one of those gigantic professional contruction-sized jackhammers.