I think we've done about as much as we, personally, can do.

Neel's removed all the plaster and lath from the kitchen side, and framed out and removed a chunk from the living room side. We don't want to go much further on our own for fear of sending huge cracks along the plaster walls.

I feel for him because he clearly wants to keep going. He's enjoyed this part. He comes home from work and just starts pounding away. He doesn't even take off his work ID (wish I had a picture of that!). But we're reaching the limit of our capabilities: we've been washing dishes in the powder room sink for nearly two weeks, there's a layer of dust as fine as sifted flour all over my house, and I think I broke my toe yesterday. So we've hit our wall.

But the water heater guys are here right now to move out the water heater.

And of course the darn thing wouldn't drain so they had to move it out full, down several steps, across pea gravel and up one more. Nothing difficult is ever easy (hat tip to Mom for that invaluable quote).

Still, it's looking even more like a hallway now, so we must be getting somewhere.