Delays and Drywall Days

I'm not sure what tipped them off. Could it have been the giant dumpsters that kept appearing, getting filled and being replaced with empty ones at the side of our property, or was it the 6 x 6 x 6 foot hole in our front lawn. It may have been the pile of dirt, bricks and debris that came from the triple 6 hole. No one can really say. All we knew was that we had to call the city to obtain a permit to do the work we were doing inside and outside the house. Most people will tell you that if you're doing a small renovation that you don't need a permit. But I agree with Mike Holmes, host of Holmes on Homes on HGTV. GET A PERMIT. Not to mention the fact that we were not doing a small renovation - we were engaging in a total gut and restoration of our home. The fact that we needed to get a permit did a few things - mostly it delayed us by about a month, during which time we were not able to do any work on the house. We could begin again only when we had appropriate permission to do what we were doing, and this depended largely on having plans and drawings. Luckily, with some family help, such things were done up and we were able to begin again, and we were now sanctioned to renovate. Things got rolling to the point that we were ready to drywall. I'm skipping the complete rewire of the electrical, new plumbing and insulation and vapour barrier that had to happen before the walls went up, but that happened and we were ready to go. The pictures show some of teh rooms drywalled and taped and ready to seal and prime. We went away for a week on holiday and when we came back the walls were up - it was an amazing transformation - and the first time that we really had a sense that we might actually live in our house, not just go there to work! The photos don't tell the full picture though, to understand that you'd have to imagine devoting every weekend and many evenings to hauling dusty plaster, lathe, insulation and dust in garbage bins, wearing a respirator and using safety lights to see through the dark, cold halls. Then coming in to see light and walls and smelling no dust!