Demolition

Now I couldn't wait until I got into the house and was able to rip some things down. I wasn't planning on taking any walls down, but some ugly tile...definitely.

The fireplace before... Sure it looks okay in the picture, but the pink tile was not only ugly, but they did a poor job with the installation as well.
The fireplace after. You should have seen all the paint on the fireplace! Obviously the brick can't be restored. Someone actually painted that green color on almost every surface in the house. And someone else painted the brick red and outlined each brick in black. After removing the tile, I am not even sure that the fireplace was the original. You can see a sharp line in the brick that might indicate a larger fireplace that may have once resided there.

Here is what I want the fireplace to look like...

I will probably tile the surround again, since brick seems out of the question. Also my ceilings are too low and crooked for the crown molding. They actually dropped most of the ceilings in the house. That is common when the plaster starts to crumble. Unfortunately they shaved off almost two feet from the original ceilings. Some of the rooms still have the high ceilings, but they look like they are additions, so their ceilings are still in good shape.

We also removed that ugly kitchen backsplash. Not only did it not match the color that I am planning on painting the kitchen, they previous owners horrible job putting in the tile...sharp edges everywhere.

Here is a shot of Doyle removing the last of the tile. Thanks to Molly and Doyle, the project went really quickly! They have been a lot of help considering I can only pay them in pizza and tile (for Molly's mosaic table project).

You can see that the plaster was removed under the cement board for the tile. And then to level it, some various chunks of plywood and paneling were stuck in there like a puzzle. There was also years of wallpaper under there. It was like a archaeological dig.

Most likely, I will tile the backsplash, but with something more to my liking. I found these great tiles, but since they are $15 each, I will probably just use one for an accent... You can't tell from the picture, but they are actually a little copper, and everyone knows how I like copper...