Can I just tell you how excited this picture makes me!?!

I'm standing in the entryway, and I can SEE THE DECK DOOR from where I'm standing! Yippee!!!

Yes, there are still studs. Yes, there are still tiles to remove. Yes, there's garbage everywhere. Yes, the living room is full of "stuff."

But look -- through the studs to the left you see the living room. Through the studs to the right (beyond the brick fireplace) you can see the kitchen. The area that's still "solid" behind the studs will be removed this weekend. It's the "desk" area and broom closet, which currently is in the kitchen.

The steel beams have been ordered. As soon as they arrive, they can install them, build the support beam in the attic, and we'll be able to remove the studs. Then they'll build up the living room floor (the dip down area you see in this photo). Once that's all set, we'll pull out the rest of the carpet upstairs (including bedrooms) and put in hardwood or bamboo floors.

One bit of good news. We took Dominic to the allergist this morning. One of the things they tested him for was dust mites. Thankfully, that's not one of his allergies, so the carpet isn't as big of an issue as we thought it might be. The trees are -- which is what we expected. But at least his home isn't making him sick!

That's the end of the demo for tonight. Jon had to go to a concert fundraiser for his agency. So my "job" is to get the kitchen cleaned up. Demo work has made us lax in the kitchen. OK, that's not entirely true -- we're always more lax than we'd like to be in the kitchen. Demo work just made it that much more challenging to clean it!