We had to dig a hole....a big ol' hole

We started by ripping up the old sub flooring

My oldest step son working on those floors - hubby in the background in the bathroom

So this is what the house was built on - the ground. No crawl space, no slab foundation.  Just dirt.  The corners of the house/store were "balanced" on huge rocks, which had settled into the ground since 1906.  lol  So what does that mean?  We had to dig out a crawl space...with a shovel.  ...no heavy machinery.  Just good old fashion manual labor!  haha

This is where we started - in the kitchen.  Notice how small this kitchen is..this room goes through a huge change in the next few months.  So take note of the size here..  But while we were doing demo in here - we found out that they had nailed a piece of wood over a window.  A huge window at that!

I'm not sure if you can tell - but we dug a hole so deep that this wall is just hanging.  lol  We were able to crawl under this wall.  My daughter who was one at the time would run back and forth under the wall.  But this wall was what separated the kitchen and bedroom number one.  Such tiny tiny rooms in this house!!!  

Looking back at these pictures makes me realize exactly how far we have come.  We had to dig out a crawl space under the kitchen, bathroom and both bedrooms.  Luckily the living room (the main part of the store) was built on a slab foundation...so NO digging there.  lol  

When we moved in we didn't have working plumbing...heat or air...no shower...no washer and dryer.  All we had was a roof over our head to keep us out of the elements.  

We used the bathroom at the Dollar General up the road - and to this day the ladies who work there ask how the progress is coming on the house.  lol  At night time when the dollar general was closed, yes...we did our business in a bucket.  lol  That may be a little too much info for some - but I want you guys to get the full affect of what its like living through this remodel *grin*

We showered at our gym - luckily when we bought this house we moved closer to our gym.  So every night we would pack up our bag with our pjs and shampoo and take a family trip to the gym.  Let me tell you about the struggle of trying to keep a one year old in the shower stall while trying to wash yourself.  HAHA  Annabelle is a wiggle worm - can not be still.  So I would have to sing, dance, act silly while showering to keep her in the stall.  ...and I would pray no one would come in while we were in there. ...oh such fun memories haha

We did our laundry at the laundry mat.  That is something we have done before...so that wasn't such a big deal.  ...but I felt like I was at the laundry mat every day - because we went through a lot of clothes. We were always dirty haha  We never wore our "nice clothes" ...I remember telling my Mama that I loved visiting her house (12 hours away) because Annabelle could wear her cute/nice clothes...and not her dirt stained sweat pants.  lol

...but yes - the first thing we did to this lovely little blue gas station was dig out a crawl space.  What a chore!!