Seven years ago we purchased an old 1950’s home that was previously owned by my great uncle and auntie. After my uncle died, we purchased the home, so that my great auntie could still live in it until her death. Once she passed away, we started gutting the home and moved into it 4 1/2 years ago.
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When we first remodeled we ONLY remodeled the kitchen, the one full bathroom, built-on and added another full bathroom, 2 of the bedrooms and turned the dining room into a temporary living room. Over the past 4 years we’ve remodeled the game/family room, the laundry room and my pantry/storage room. We also added an above-ground swimming pool to the backyard along with all new landscaping.
Every summer we take on another large project aka remodeling project in the home. This year we selected the old attached sun room which is a decent size. That room hasn’t been touched in over 10 years! It had numerous roof leaks, a few cracked windows, smelled nasty and well…needed to be ripped down.
We started that process last weekend. Over the period of 4 days we tore down all of the walls, studs, paneling, removed all of the windows, ripped up the nasty pink tiled flooring and then tore off the roof. The only thing left standing was the cement slab that room was built on.
While ripping down the ceiling and the roof we came across a massive hornet bee’s nest! When I say massive…it measured 17″ in length by 8 1/2″ in width. No kidding! I’m allergic to bee stings so I took off and hid inside the house while hubby took care of the resident bees. Took him about 5 hours to kill and evict them out of there.
Before tearing down the nest aka the bee hive, I got a few photographs for you all to see. OMGeee! I’ve never seen a hornet’s nest that big! I’m glad all of the bees have now been evicted!
This coming weekend we will start rebuilding the room and will be building it from the cement slab, up! We’re putting in completely new walls, studs, ceiling, roofing, windows, flooring, lighting, EVERYTHING! Right now..it’s just a cement slab!
As we go along on this major home remodeling project, I’ll be updating all of you, so that you can see what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and how this project finally turns out!
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I can not imagine being so handy that I could take on these kind of projects. You and hubby must be very good at DIY and learning how to manage when the house is partially torn up. I bet it will be lovely and you will have everything just the way you want it. The hornets nest looks like it would make a super science project.
I miss my great uncle and aunt too. We visited them every summer on vacation in Colorado Springs from the Midwest. I loved it so and eventually moved to Colorado from Ohio, where I grew up. Good grief, what a hugo nest. I’m not sure I’ve ever been stung by a hornet, not that I can remember anyway. I think fixing up old houses is fun. My sister is doing that herself–brave girl.
We did almost the same thing minus the move with a living estate here for my husband’s step father. Although his Mom had owned the home and left it to her kids (which she could do legally here) they allowed him to stay. No rent just upkeep and paying taxes.
TThat is a HUGE nest it is amazing what hornets can do . We have dirt dabers doing that in front of one of the cameras they look like little aliens when they land.
I am looking forward to your after pictures!
Thank God you discovered this nest. You guys would have been chased out of your home by them! I have never seen a hornet nest so huge~~I know that freaked you out, it would have freaked me out too! Glad you didn’t get stung!! Take care…..
That was really wonderful what you did for your family. I have never ever ever seen a bee hive that big that is really scary I am so glad that your husband nuked them. Can’t wait to see the room after you guys get done remodeling it. Thank you for sharing the great pictures.
It was a good thing you did for your aunt not having to move must have been a blessing for her.
You guy were so lucky that you never got attacked by all those bees. Good luck on the your projects it take time but it will be that special something for you
It was. We promised my great uncle that we would do everything that we could to keep auntie in the house after he passed. Once she paid off his medical bills, not much left for her to live on. We opted to buy the house from her and then rent it to her on the cheap. We did that for almost 5 years until she passed. I miss them both, they were like grandparents to me.