what were we thinking?

So while my brother-in-law was here we got the notion to do a few home improvement projects. Ryan is a contractor and was gracious enough to teach Dustin a few things about dry wall. However then we got ambitious and decided to take on a serious home improvement that we wanted done while we had the willing and knowledgeable help of a professional. Keep in mind this is the first remodeling job that we have ever done seeing this is our first home. We really wanted a window put into one of our walls in our family room so that we could see our yard, as it is all on the side of our house. So Ryan estimated that it would take a few hours and they we would have a beautiful window in our family room. The boys headed out to Lowes and Home Depot for the window and tools and supplies.

Here is the wall before the window.....

and here is Dustin excited about using his new manly tools.....

and here is Ryan letting Dustin make the first cut.

However when we opened up the wall.....we found this......

Yes that would be about every pipe from our upstairs bathrooms running right down the middle of that wall. Right where we wanted the window.

And then my family room turned into this.....yes that is hole in the floor.

It turned into a complete construction zone.

And the project that was supposed to take a few hours.....ended up taking about 3 days trying to reroute all the plumbing around our window. I am so grateful to Ryan for being willing to take on such a job and really thankful to our friend Dave who is a plumber who loaned the boys his truck full of supplies so that they could actually finish the job.

And finally all the pipes got reworked to make room for our beloved window.

And towards the end of day two....we finally had a hole in the wall.

And then a window.

And then the wall started going back up and the floor was closed up.

And this little helper was right there through it all helping the boys.

And then after three days, no working bathrooms for 9 girls for about 2 hours, lots of loud hammering, sawing, and an unusable family room we ended up with a beautiful window that I love!

Ryan did such a good job and I am so thankful because even though it wasn't the best weekend to take this on, I know that if we hadn't got it done this with him here it wouldn't have happened! It would have cost us SO much and just wouldn't have been something that we would have really taken the time and money to do. It opens up my family room so much and lets so much more light into the room! Thank you Ryan for all your hard work and thank you Dustin for making it happen and being such a good assistant!:)