I really didn't miss doing demolition; we had done plenty of it during the first few months that we lived here.  It could be worse, I mean, we did invest in a couple good ventilator masks (old houses can literally kill you with the dust in their walls).  We periodically stopped to pick up plaster, lath, and insulation so the room wasn't as much of a mess as it could have been.  We've learned that cleaning up smaller messes a bunch of times is much better than doing a huge clean-up at the end of the project, so we get to take our ventilators off from time to time when there isn't nasty, old blown-in insulation all over the room.

It didn't take too long to get the new studs and footer installed, it was more of a pain in the butt to get the raw opening just right.  Because we had already purchased our new windows we had to be sure that they would fit when we were finished.  But between the two of us, a few diagrams, and a whole lot of math we managed to get it right and the window went it with no problem.  After it was secured to the house I went crazy with the spray-foam insulation.  Word to the wise: with this project be sure to use the kind that is meant for windows and doors or else you'll run into some problems later.  Also, only fill the space about one third or else it will expand way past the point where you need insulation, and that is just waste and a whole lot of extra clean up later.  You can always go back after its all dried and add extra if you really need it.  Whatever is too small to fill with this spray foam insulation can be covered with some silicone caulk (which is needed around the outside of the window anyways).