I stumbled across one ad in particular, and it said they had upwards of 400 new construction 4" and 6" can lights for like $5 each or the whole batch for super cheap (over $5,000 worth in new construction can lights for a fraction of the price)... So Kevin called the guy, and we made an appointment to meet up and see the can lights and the whole situation.
So on a Saturday, we drove out to Horsehead Bay, near Gig Harbor, and met up with this guy. When we finally drive up to this house, it's a veritable mansion (oh, I mean Castle... probably worth a few million finished, on the waterfront, with a guest house and boat house), and they are taking it down. That's right, demolishing the thing... At least big chunks of it. The plan was to take the entire second floor off, 2 of the 7 garages (yeah, kinda ridiculous) and the center section of the house.
We found out that the couple who'd owned it had both worked for some telecom company, and had spent a fortune (and 10 years) working on this place, adding on, changing and changing again. Every room was networked (and I mean miles and miles of network cable) and the house even had a conference room and all kinds of crazy stuff... Well, turns out they apparently went bankrupt and lost the house... And then it sat for 2 years, vacant and unfinished (the exterior was finished, stone facade and 3-tab roof, but the interior was still just studs, with the electrical and plumbing put in... just no drywall).
This is where all the network cable came together in the basement...
And had to do this pano to see the whole entry way.. Two curving staircases went up to the left and right... (The bridge was not curved, it's just the nature of the panorama). Check out the bank of can lights!!!
Left curving staircase.
Bridge and the ridiculous number of lights above the living room. (There were a ridiculous number of can lights in the house... Probably another like 200 can lights that were destroyed or too high to remove nicely).
The next-door neighbors finally bought the property (mostly for the boathouse), and decided to demo the monstrosity... At least big chunks of it. We walked through the house with the son-in-law who was in charge of selling anything he could from the house if possible... Anything that didn't sell would go to salvage or the dump.
We walked through the place just dumbfounded that they had come so far and would be taking so much out (and that someone would want to build such a ridiculous monstrosity), but most of all, thinking to ourselves how much we could use! He mentioned that pretty much anything we wanted or could get out of there we could take.
We let him know that we wanted all the can lights we could get our hands on, as well as some pex tubing (for plumbing), some gas pipe, electrical outlets, and other bits and pieces. We also let him know that we were interested in the I-joists and some of the beams that were going to be coming out as well... And he said basically "you get them out, you can have them." (That means another probably $6-8,000 worth in I-joists and beams that we could have for no extra change... as long as we can get them out ourselves).
So a week later, we picked up a Uhaul and went out with Kevin's brother and niece and nephew, and got the can lights, electrical outlets, and pex tubing. The I-joists and beams were not yet ready to come out, so we'd have to wait to go back and get those.
Here's the Uhaul full of our pickings... A mountain of can lights (with light bulbs) pex tubing, tile, etc.
A week or so after that first round of "picking the carcass," they let us know that stuff was on hold while the owners worked out plans and questions with the contractor and the architect. So we held off...
Then another week later we got a phone call that plans had changed again, and they'd decided to demolish the entire house, and the demo crew had just shown up and were hacking into the house! So Kevin made a mad dash over to make sure they didn't rip out or destroy the joists and beams we needed! They'd already made quick work of a big section, but thankfully there were still plenty of joists for us to salvage.
Here's what's left of the house.
So Saturday, we went back out and started cutting out the joists and beams we needed, as well as collecting 2x4's and anything else worth snagging.
(Yep, that's Kevin, a chainsaw, and a Utilikilt). LOL!
Sunday, we went back out with a Uhaul to finish cutting out more and bring those back with us.
Kevin had a friend come out in the morning and help, then I joined him with one of Kevin's brothers, then later, another brother and niece and nephew also joined us for the demo.
While I was cutting out more pex tubing from the basement, I kept feeling like I was severing veins; the hot water uses red tubing, cold water blue... Don't they look like veins and arteries? (And the white ones are like tendons) lol!!!
We came home with 30 I-joists, one beam, two bath tubs (for Kevin's friend) tons of pex tubing, and other stuff...
and I was kind of obsessed with some of the architectural bits that were around the site...
Kevin just rolled his eyes as we snuck some into the trailer.
(LOL... Imagining a hobbit hole door)
Yeah... Having too much fun!!!
I'm trying to get a good "before picture" of the house... And when I do, I'll post it so you can see. :)
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