There’s no better cure for a case of the Mondays than swinging a sledgehammer. It must have been an especially slow Monday, because we took on four different demolition projects yesterday.
Demo project #1: Removing the chair rail in the dining room we’re converting into a third bedroom. Chair rail looks odd in a bedroom, so it had to go. I was at work while Sherry started this one, and she made quick work of it with a hammer, a crowbar and some determined womanpower. Farewell, chair rail.
Underneath, we found gross yellow paint and ’70s wallpaper — even worse than what we saw when we first moved in.
Demo project #2: Finishing the day’s work on the backyard by tearing out a decorative slate medallion to make room for more grass. Sherry had started this earlier, and when I got home we grabbed the 20-pound sledge and took turns swinging — all while humming Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.” The slate went away in minutes. The real work was digging up the sand bed beneath it, but a larger grassy yard will be worth that effort.
Demo project #3: Relocating a garden arch to free up more lawn space. Taking it out wasn’t too difficult — some digging around the stakes and a few shimmies got it loose (admittedly it took a bit more effort than expected). We tried a quick, makeshift re-stake at its new location toward the back of the property, but by then it was getting dark and we took a dinner break.
After Taco Bell and a trip to Lowe’s for topsoil, I thought the night was over. But Sherry reappeared with a hammer, ready for demo project #4: opening up the laundry area. It was about 10:30, but momentum was on our side.
The “before” wasn’t pretty: cheap painted bi-fold doors hid a cramped closet containing the washer, dryer and two shelves full of junk. It did a great job of concealing the mess, but it also made the hallway between the sunroom and the den feel claustrophobic — like squeezing through a narrow straw every time you walked by.
What began as removing the bi-fold doors quickly escalated to taking out the wall above the opening. Crowbar plus brute force did the trick — the wall came down and, yes, drywall dust rained everywhere. Clothes and the room were coated in drywall “snow,” but the space instantly felt much more open.
Our plan is to widen the doorway by about 10–12 inches to open the hallway even more, add cabinet doors to the upper shelf to hide the clutter, and eventually swap the current washer and dryer for front-loading models. The goal is a bright, white laundry nook that’s neater and more visually appealing than the old bi-fold cave. Demolition is a lot more fun than rebuilding — but these changes will make the house feel bigger and more livable.