Old framing OUT!

I went over to the Wednesday evening, but it was so dreary I didn’t get many good photos that accurately reflect the enormity of changes.  When I entered the house I saw that all the old framing had been torn out – the first and second floors were completely OPEN.

Wednesday views of first floor:

A new support beam let us completely open up the living and congruent kitchen space

There used to be a chimney in the middle of the floor – no more

Where the chimney used to be

The reverse long view of our living space to-be

And the wall came tumbling down

The big change this morning: the wall between the old kitchen and the old back porch area is down (mostly) on the first floor.  I have to admit, I was so caught off guard as soon as I realized that I had forgotten my camera (it was safely at home and not in a puddle in the rain outside as I had initially feared) that I never made it up to the second floor to peek around, so I’ll need to go back again later to document the progress.

What I noticed on the first floor:

• The old 1908 exterior wall that had become an interior wall separating the living part of the house with the enclosed back stairwell/porch has been removed;
• A new subfloor has been installed in the old back porch area, making it level with the rest of the first floor.  Hooray!
• Partial wall frames are up, outlining the area where the 4’ x 6’ bathroom will go, at the back of the house (within the “old” back porch area that is now being integrated with the rest of the interior living space).

Unfortunately, I’m housebound now with either food poisoning or a stomach bug of some sort, so I won’t be taking any pictures until tomorrow.

This weekend is going to be all about making the final decision on windows, which apparently can take anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks to come in.  Ayesh has been doing a TON of research and I’m picking up random new vocabulary terms, like “extruded” versus “rolled” aluminum, and have learned that there is a class action law suit against Pella casement windows, which has affected our comfort level with those products and may sway us to choose a different brand.

The biggest thing for us is that we want to choose the most energy efficient, (attractive, obviously) and best quality windows that we can afford.  Luckily, having the general contractor that we do, he knows people and has already proven that he is capable of getting good deals for us.  Plus, we plan to take advantage of the $1,500 federal tax credit opportunity for energy efficient home upgrades.

Wish us luck!

I can see clearly now

I stopped over to the house on Saturday, stepped into the foyer of the house, and could see all the way up to the underside of the roof.  Everything is ripped down to the basic orgininal framing.

All the old plumbing soon to be ripped out

Clear view all the way through

The front foyer

I took a ba-zillion photos, but unless you’re in the space and seeing it with your own eyes, it all looks pretty much the same.  That won’t be the case for long, however.  Ayesha is a much more talented photographer than I am, and she managed to get some really great shots, and a few of me standing amidst the ruins.  (I’ll see if I can’t get her to do a guest post for the blog).

This week the contractor and his crew are working on ripping out the old framing that needs to be adjusted on each floor – there are only a few original walls that will be rebuilt in the same locations.

In the meantime, we’re starting to contemplate our options for windows, fixtures, and everything else that needs to go in once the draywalling happens over the next couple of weeks.

 

So many studs, so little time

So, yeah, demo has begun – and how.  I stopped over this morning and saw by light of day what I could only guess at in the dark on Thursday night.  The gut is in process.

The cascade of debris coming down the basement stairs

Debris down the stairwell to the basement

The stairwell, which is staying, covered with demo dust

Empty demo dumpster, ready for more action on Monday

Second floor hallway

Second floor bath starting to come undone

Second Floor kitchen – isn’t as far along as first floor

Hallway

Long view of the studly kitchen

Now all the kitchen cabinets are on the back porch being saved for re-use

This used to be the kitchen

You can still see some remnants of the pink floor tile and the shower head

Between the studs of what used to be the first floor bathroom

View down the hall towards the back of the house from the living room

First floor living room

Demo has begun

Our contractor called us today with a nice surprise. He started demo YESTERDAY! He knew how anxious I’ve been to get started and also knew I’d want to come take a look as soon as it started getting torn up, but he waited a day so I could actually see some significant work. The entire first floor is gutted. The walls are down. The old bathroom is gone. The ceiling has been opened up. Studs, studs, everywhere are studs. We stopped by last night after work. Unfortunately it was already dark out, and there is currently no electric in the house, so we could see very little & were not able to take any photos. The new, giant dumpster in front of our house (which made us cheer as we approached from down the street) is already filled to the brim. I came in to work early today in hopes that I can get out before sunset and snap a few shots. I’ll keep ya posted!