ye olde shanty: home sweet home part 5: underneath it all.

so i don't know that we will ever be fully moved into the back shanty. i mean, for the first couple of weeks, our underpants and socks were LIT-ER-ALLY being stored in the driveway, because it was yet to rain. every morning, UNTIL IT RAINED AND WE WERE FORCED TO MAKE DECISIONS, i would get up, put on my robe, and go down to the driveway to grab sugarbear a fresh pair of draws and socks. hashtag martha fucking stewart, y'all!! so after getting moderately situated in the back shanty, we received a lot of pressure to pull back the curtain thought it would be fun to have some friends over! YOU KNOW. so they could to see what we were steppin in, as well as get their heads around what will be hereforto referred to as SHANTY PROGRESS. because we like to think we are really doing something!

the reality is, there is only room for improvement, aka absolutely nowhere to go but up.

so as all yard/beer parties tend to go, we ended up doing some sledgehammering in ye front shanty.  this was more a ceremonial demo, as the real demo crew would arrive the following morning, but we wanted to give our pals a chance to kick in a wall or two.

that is a hole in the floor girl.

oh HAAYYYY, floor outlet that was just carpeted over.

it was pretty fun, and no one got hurt, so also a screaming success? shit got RILL real when the pros arrived (no offense, friends).

all this time, our plan has been to gut the front shanty to down to the studs and re-work the existing structure. we've got a decent roof and slat-wall construction in the money pit - the house is built like a TANK. a termite-infested, rotting tank. just jokes! we totes killed those termites and there is not that much rot.

as it turns out, we have zero architectural elements to try and preserve. not a surprise. we'd suspected there was not much to be had underneath the 80's remodel, but other than some sweeeeeet vintage wallpaper (so old it pretty much crumbles in your hands), there be nada. i did salvage some super old leaded glass windows that had been walled over, and will be saving those in my hoarder pile.

hey bitches.

this place reeks of elegance.

 here be my windows. there are four - what do i do with these things?

in the next photo, you can check out dumpster load numero uno, which is visible since the 'garage' that separated the front and back properties had to be taken out. see those four post areas? that used to hold a roof and a garage door, which kept the back shanty area private, but about five days after we moved in, the garage door broke and were it not a total POS, we might have tried to fix it. it had these little ghetto clickers and you could drive through the 'garage' all the way to the garage door at the back of the property, as well as park under the back shanty. so convenient, y'all - especially with groceries or other interior design-related loads of shit, but the temp fence does give us a lot of privacy from the construction and also exercise.

so many long walks to and from the car through that gate = so much exercise.

hashtag winning aka losing.

on the upside, that's the fanciest temp fence i ever did see.

temporary holding spot for my windows, while i worked out the location of the new hoard pile.

dining room walls, aka world's largest ant farm.

ships, carriages, gents and ladies on the stroll - HOW IS THIS WALLPAPER OUT OF STYLE?

please note the roller shades on these windows, left in place when the windows and fireplace were just sheetrocked over.

hey! another secret window!

after one of the demo guys fell in this hole and spilled his horchata ERRYWHERE, we came up with this fancy cabinet door hole covering solution.

pink slats from somewhere, used in the dining room.

you shall not pass.