Getting ready to tear down the house and build a new one.

Living room before demolition.

Isn't that nice paneling? We are going to try to salvage it. Wasp nests make good insulation

Surprising insulation. They used a thin paper sandwich and then stapled it in in such a way as to insure minimum loft. Then the wasps improved on the insulation. The newspaper covers one section that has blown in insulation.

The other corner of the living room before we started tearing it up.

Yet more insulation mysteries and wasps nests. But we remain elegant with our clock installed on the studs. Those studs are rough-sawn from trees that were harvested on the property.

Nail removal and triage is performed on salvaged trim and paneling. Bad stuff goes directly into the fire.

Had to come through the bathroom wall to get the cabinet off the utility room wall. These folks had a tendency to use lots of really big nails where three screws would have done the job better.

Trashing the kitchen. Brian the plumber is going to use the cabinets in his rental house.

We saved a few of the windows, but not many folks wanted them.

There were two high towers with huge antennas. No longer needed as we have cable in all the cabins and house.

There is a cherry-picker on the other end of that chain.

Short-haul moving van.

Meanwhile, we are attempting to live in one of our cabins - 500 sq. ft. At least we got it repaneled and insulated before we moved in.

It WILL get neater. Keeping it that way is going to be a challenge for as long as we live here. No swinging cats.

We use the second bedroom as walk-in closet and storage.

King-size bed has about 8&rdquo clearance on each side. A lot of storage under.

Our cozy little kitchen.

Brian will use thse 2x4s to build walls in his basement.

Finally getting the last bits out to the cabin and/or garage.

And none too soon. It is starting to snow.

Even the geraniums look worried.

Demolition day minus one and we are wondering if the crew will show up to work in the snow.

Well the guy from the gas company showed up to reroute and rebury the gas line so that the cabins can have heat when the house is shut off.

They're here, they're here!

Start by putting a hole in the roof.

Then make the hole a little bigger.

Then put the porch in the hole.

Then put the the rest of the house in the hole.

Climb up on top to get at the back half.

Now we can do some serious damage.

Well, where's that roll-off? We're ready to load it up.

And let's burn some house to warm our hands. It is 23° F. F does NOT stand for Fahrenheit.

Now, let's discuss the REAL plan. I think that the crawl space should be six high versus the five on the plan. I also think we should move the pad a couple feet to the right to make more room between the roof and the trees.