We finally made it — despite a few notable setbacks. The duplex has been completely gutted, and today we’ll walk you through the demolition with photos and a video, plus outline our plans for rebuilding.
From our experience with the pink house, when a property shows heavy moisture damage it’s far safer to remove all interior walls so there are no surprises hidden behind them. This duplex already had obvious trouble spots before demo — black mold on a side wall and ceilings caving in from water — so a full gut was the right first move. Unsurprisingly, we uncovered bad framing, outdated wiring, leaking plumbing, and even squirrels’ nests tucked into wall cavities and the HVAC ductwork. Yes, actual squirrels — and yes, it was as messy as it sounds.
The photo above shows the LEFT-side living room as it was; you can find more before photos in our original duplex tour. Below is that same room after demo. The hardwoods are dusty now, but they should clean up well, similar to the floors in the pink house.
On the RIGHT side, the living room initially seemed to have fewer water issues and less mold.
After demo, that same shot reveals missing walls, ladders, and significant rot along the right-hand wall. Some framing will need reinforcement for safety. Fortunately, no squirrels were found on this side.
Here’s one more before-and-after comparison. The kitchen on the right was tucked into a former enclosed side porch. If you followed the podcast, you might remember this is where water started gushing out when we turned on the meter. The discolored and rotten floor areas predated demo.
After demo, the back wall showed improvised, non-code construction — essentially cobbled together from scraps — so it’s a small miracle it stayed standing at all.
We have a full video tour where Sherry explains the floor plan ideas and highlights odd discoveries from demo. We’ll publish a detailed floor plan soon once a few decisions are finalized.
If you can’t watch the video right now, here are the main highlights covered:
We plan to open up each entryway so the stairs feel less closed off. By pulling the wall back several studs, the staircase sides will connect more naturally to the living room instead of forming a dark, narrow vestibule.
From the living room perspective, the yellow line in the photo gives a sense of the new opening we’re aiming for, and the white line indicates where a railing might go to keep the stair visually open while staying safe.
We’ll also add a powder room on each side. Both units originally had only a full bath upstairs (plus a random toilet on the right side that wasn’t even behind a door). We plan to convert the closet under the stairs into a proper half bath with a sink, toilet, and door.
Another doorway to be widened is the opening between the living room and the future kitchen, which was likely used as a dining area before. By moving the dining table to the far end of the living room we can expand the kitchen into the back room and create a brighter, more open cooking space.
In the kitchen, we plan to install the sink on the back wall under a shortened window so cabinets can fit beneath it. Cabinets will continue along the right wall to accommodate the range and fridge. We also uncovered a brick chimney behind the walls which we plan to expose and keep as a feature.
The left side currently has a narrow galley kitchen that was also carved out of a former porch. We plan to use that area for a combined laundry, pantry cabinetry, and a small mudroom since it leads to the back door and future outdoor shower.
Framing in that section is chaotic — some studs are installed the wrong way — so it may need to be rebuilt entirely. We’ve tackled similar full rebuilds before with the pink house, so we’re prepared.
Downstairs, one poignant view shows from the left kitchen into the right side. In a few months that sightline will be closed once walls go back up, so we’re enjoying the open view while it lasts.
Upstairs is a bit trickier to describe. From the front bedroom looking toward the back, the upstairs bathroom was excessively long. We’ll reclaim some of that wasted square footage to create a small third sleeping nook, inspired by the pink house’s bunk room. It won’t necessarily be identical, but it will add valuable sleeping space for a vacation property.
It’s also clear the roof is very shallow — there’s virtually no attic — so the roof rafters sit just inches above the ceiling. We’ve been approved by the Historic Review Board to increase the roof pitch, which will create room to tuck in HVAC equipment and improve water shedding to reduce future leaks.
The front bedroom footprint will remain largely the same, while the back bedroom will gain a small addition and an en suite bathroom. We’re converting an upstairs window into a door that opens onto the tiny addition. Since the downstairs already has a bump-out in that area, this is essentially continuing that footprint upstairs to add an extra full bath, bringing each side from one bathroom to 2.5 bathrooms total. The Historic Review Board has already approved the addition and a new window between the chimney and the former window, so we won’t lose natural light.
We also discovered the chimney twists between floors — it’s parallel to the walls in the kitchen but angled upstairs — which is a quirky structural detail now visible thanks to demo.
Seeing both mirrored floorplans exposed at once is oddly thrilling — like a pair of twins finally meeting. The full video walkthrough has more orientation and detail, so watch it when you can for additional context and some memorable quotes from the job site. The house has earned the nickname “the smelly house” from our kids, but with luck and hard work that won’t stick.
P.S. For more context on this duplex, check the posts and podcasts where we detail buying it, full-before tours, early renovation setbacks, and the demo process that led to today’s photos and video.