Project Phase: Pre-Demo March 2025
Before we knew the house was a total teardown—and before Frank ever said the words, “For only $20,000 more…”—we were still thinking this was a renovation situation.
However, Frank had called with an update- After he cut a hole in the bathroom floor to look under the “addition”, he said it was in such bad shape, it would need to come down. He could rebuild it.
So, we went back to the house to look at it with fresh eyes, trying to see it with the new reality. If we were rebuilding the addition anyway, could the layout of that space change?
- Maybe we could move the bathroom to the back of the house and have the kitchen up front?
- If we did that, could we move the bedroom entrance so it faced the bathroom?
We were deep in thought, walking out of the bathroom—the one where Frank had cut a hole in the floor to inspect the plumbing—when I saw something dark in the corner.
I stopped but didn’t look back.
“I don’t know what I just saw back there, and I’m too scared to look,” I told Mike. “Will you?”
Mike went on “Gross Duty” again.
“Nice,” he said. “It’s just a bat.”
“A bat?!”
“It’s dead.”
It was then that I was brave enough to turn around. I had to get a picture, of course. It still creeps me out looking at it, so scroll past the next set of images if you get queasy:
Everyone, meet Bernard.
But just so you know: Bernard was not the only squatter we found at the cabin.
Mike disposed of Bernard, and right after, we found a 1944 penny on the floor. We were feeling lucky.
As we walked out that day, leaving Bernard behind, but not the penny, a crazy idea popped into our heads. We looked at that one-story “addition”.
What if we didn’t just rebuild the addition? What if Frank built it as a 1½ story instead? It would match the original cabin and give us more room.
We didn’t know it yet, but asking that specific question is exactly what would lead Frank to come up with the math that leveled the house.
If you want to read about how we came to the “teardown” decisions, click to read “The 7 Red Flags We Ignored“.
