We'll get by with a little help from our friends!

Wow. We've got GREAT friends! Seven of them showed up to help us with demolition today. Let's start with the first arrival. Kathy Burd gets "Best Realtor EVER" award from the Martineaus. She arrived with her own tool belt AND photocopies of the documents she researched at the library about our house. Charles Seeds bought the place in 1904. He was a police officer. She created a list of every resident of the place through present time. She also produced ads for the Paradise Confectionery Company - the source of our cute copper tongs. They were a 1906-era business owned by one of the first Greek families to settle in Columbus! Then Kathy and I set about clearing the rest of the plaster in the front room. Jon T arrived and went to work on the second floor and neighbor Brue got there and went up to help him. The first room on the second floor is now bare rafters thanks to their efforts. They seemed to have fun heaving construction debris out the second story window onto the ground below for "easier" hauling to the dumpser! Doug C - our videographer extraordinaire caught some images of the carnage on film and then set about making "the closet to nowhere" completely disappear with the help of Kathy! It is now entirely brick with a cool old header beam! Brian B came in and annihilated 90% of the plaster in the living room with Doug's aid. We now have brick, brick, brick walls everywhere! Bryan H and Johnny G were the aces who helped us haul it all into the dumpster! Eric removed the entire ceiling in the guest bedroom and Brue tore out the plaster and lathe on the stairwell. All-in-all, we got a week's worth of work done in a day thanks to our friends! We had a few beers on the back porch and then sent everyone home to hit the showers. All were invited to Surly Girl for a "thank you" dinner. We were pleasantly surprised upon arrival to discover that Liz and Carmen (the awesome proprietresses of the establishment) had reserved a table for our party in the back! Many thanks to all of you who helped us out!