Be Jealous

We're having fun!

Merry Xmas

Yes, we got plastered.  Well, our walls did.

Yes. we moved in.  Yes, we had "real" movers.  And help and support from much family and many friends. 

Yes, it's taking me too long to post pics.

But for now, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, secularly or otherwise.

And to Book-face, good night.

Rockin' IN!

Sheetrock is going in as we speak.  What a nice job to not be doing ourselves...

Backing it up

Moving to the back of the room...

I'll share some more pics soon, but following from the Friday/Saturday work of tearing out and rebuilding the subfloor in the front of the new living room, we basically rebuild the framing of the rear corner today, after some head-scratching to find a balance between a _flat_ floor, a _level_ floor, and a floor that meets the rear wall at nearly the same distance from the ceiling as up in the front of the room.  However, you can't (we decided, due to physics) have everything, so we selected our compromises and actually I think it will turn out really well. 

In case I haven't described it well yet, we're reworking some of the joists where needed, adding support and digging away dirt that's too near to the wood.  Then we're hanging two-inch, high-R-value rigid foam insulation flush to the surface, and laying OSB/plywood subfloors.  Should have the majority of the room finished tomorrow and fairly flat (plus very solid).  Then, a little space as we're hoping to have wallboard hung and plaster applied in the middle of the week!

Lots of new joist work, and some of the rigid foam insulation already in place.

 

You can see how much we ended up raising the floor level - the joists here are notched over the ledger board that originally was flush to the old subfloor - those are 2x6s, so we're quite a bit higher, with the floor yet to go on top.

Happy Birthday to Isla!

Isla turned two today!

Building it up

Quick shots ... Rebuilding floor in the front section.  We actually got through pretty much all of the ex-living room area.  More floor tomorrow!

In this shot you see the 2" insulation we're putting underneath and the OSB going down for subfloor...

Tearing it up

We've got the floor and most of the subfloor up... Time to start being careful where we step!

Foaming (at the mouth?)

OK, OK, long time no post.  We've been working hard, at home and in the office.  On the bright side, we're starting to see the fruits of our labors on the house front.

Sooo much has happened since Thanksgiving!  We've torn out additional plaster (every time you think you're done...), put up an LVL beam across the rear of the new living room, worked on the back corner where the foundation is sinking away from the sills, and pulled out the floor in the rear area.  The electricians did a couple days of rough installation for outlets, sconces, switches, and a ceiling can.  Oh, and we installed radiant heat tubing in the ceilings under the bath and two bedrooms exposed in the working room!  But more on those later - most recent photos come after having closed-cell foam insulation blown into the walls and ceiling, as well as around the sills to air-seal the crawlspace underneath.  Rob and I pulled two or three extra-long days over the weekend to make this happen in time for the foam spraying Monday . . . thanks Rob!

Side wall in front - the covered the windows with plastic while they worked around them.

Front around the bay - note we pulled the radiators and removed the plaster below the windows for access.

Sconce box next to the front bay.

Ceiling "can" light for the rear inside corner.

Had the foam guys leave space for a channel up to the double gang box behind the TV mount.  We can put in a cable chase and fill the rest with fiberglass insulation or can spray foam..

Under the bath fittings, mostly sealing the gap up into that wall and under-tub area.

It's nice to be substantially building in instead of tearing out!

Pics from the Valley

Here are some pics to go with the previous post...

View from the rear forward into the Living Room, through what used to be a partition wall, builtin shelves/desk, and hidden brick chimney.

View from the same rear corner, sideways to where there's no longer a closet.  Actually, the beam above and post in the center delineate what was probably once the rear wall of the house - everything to the right appears to have been added later.

Ceilings running side-to-side in the ex-Library part.  New framing under the bathroom at the far-right.

Ceilings running to the front, with a mysterious box in the middle that I am guessing was a heat register when there was just a wood stove downstairs (later plastered into the ceiling).

From the front outside corner, toward the rear-middle.

Side wall, down to studs.  Apparently no insulation in this room - have to fix that.

Exposed closet under the staircase, which had been walled in.  Also the center-hall (still with a sheet of plastic across it for dust control) out to the front entry, which we re-opened by demolishing the closet someone put there.

In the center-call area, probably the oldest decoration we've uncovered.  Seems to be a couple feet's worth of wainscotting below, and old wallpaper on plaster above.  Was walled in to the back of the closet.

Top of the wainscot, with moulding/nosing.

Wallpaper detail.

A different border/trim on the wallpaper.

In the Valley?

Well - another week gone by, and what have we got to show for it?  Lots, actually.

In addition to really nice Thanksgiving meals and company, I am hoping we're basically done on the downhill of "tearing out", and ready to start going back upwards on "building in".  With big help from Rob and Sybille, we've got the chimney removed, and the center-hall-blocking closet knocked out, as well as the closet in the back of the ex-Library.  We've stripped down all the plaster that's going away, as well as the rest of the miscellaneous firring, hanger-boards, lath, obsolete disconnected electrical wiring, and other junk that doesn't need to be there.  In short, we've got a ~14x25 space one direction, with another ~10x12 around the "L", and a substantial hallway re-opened from the end of the "L" to the front Entry.  We've consulted with a Structural Engineer, done our own pondering and head-scratching, and talked to an electrician about wiring plans.  So like I said, hopefully we can ADD something soon ;-).

Pics in another post soon, after I work out space-quota issues.

That's Torn It ... Out!

So the wrecking derby continued this weekend - enough so that I haven't had time for detailed posts.  This seems to have grown into the big dump of pics and details across three day's work.

We got a dumpster (10-cubic-yards) and filled 2/3rds of it with the Living Room and Library ceilings, the partition wall and built-in shelves/desk between the two rooms, and a three-by-eight or so section of flooring out of the back corner (pulled up to get a look at the sagging support structure).

Remaining work items include getting odds-and-ends demolition done as well as stripping plaster from the rear and side walls to insulate as we found nothing in there, and demolish the plaster and minor framing that walls in a closet in what used to be the center-hall .  Oh, and tear up the floor in at least the rest of the Library part, probably the Living Room too to get a consistent floor level.

Some pics for your enjoyment and edification...

Library ceiling with multiple generations and styles of framing (and a missing support post someone cut out a while back...).

Library looking toward the Dining Room - closet has been mostly demolished since this picture.

The brown section in the center is backing plaster facing into the "center hall" that has been turned into a closet.  Will punch out that plaster and framing to re-create the hallway.

Looking forward to the Living Room, through where the built-ins and partition wall were.  Chimney will go away soon (it's only on the 1st floor and non-structural) and the ceiling in the LR has been stripped since this picture.

New framing in the Library ceiling under the bathroom upstairs.  Tub plumbing at right. 

 Hole we punched in the back-corner floor to investigate the sloped floor.  Turns out that the outside sill wood is OK, but the foundation stones are moving and sinking.  Basically that corner is "floating" off of the foundation.  The beam in the foreground appears to be an old rear sill before the house was expanded rearward by ~8 feet.  This end section of it is badly damaged and we'll need to replace it.

Rearward view where the wall and archway aren't anymore. 

Attaching the ceiling (plaster on metal lath over plaster on wood lath) with a grinder to cut out sections we could then tear down and carry out. 

Ceiling debris in the living room.  

I think I need a bigger dumpster... gonna be close.

Library toward dining room, with the closet (almost) torn out and the corner framing near the center-hall removed.

Nice consistent beamwork in the Living Room ceiling.  Large beams are ~8x7 inches, the smaller crosswork is 4x4 or 4x3 inches.

Knob-and-tube wiring (thankfully, inactive) that used to go to a ceiling fixture.  We're midway through bringing down that section of ceiling.

The wrecking crew.

Getting a look at the results.

Pinky Redux

OK, the color isn't actually named "Pinky" this time, but with help from a friend (Thanks Kiera!) Christi got a full coat of paint into Margot's room yesterday.  I'll post more pics after the second coat is on and the room cleaned up, but (excusing the flash-photography) here's a taste of the main (lighter) and accent colors (one wall, darker)...

More of Less

In brief, we took away a lot of the library and living room over the last couple of days.  Now soon, but wanted to share the headline pics ASAP...

Big Demo

Rob arrived today and we got down to serious demolition.  Don't have time to post it all, but big progress with the bulk of the Library "builtin" shelves gone, as well as probably 1/2 of the library ceiling, exposing much more detail about the framing and how it changes through the spaces.  Found some scary knob-and-tube wiring but it turned out to be cut and disconnected a couple feet further on (phew).  Failed to find any clear reason for the water stains on the plaster ceiling, though.  We did expose the whole bottom of the tub area, so we can check that out easily.  Also found where there used to be a vertical post that's not there anymore . . . hmm.

Demolished builtins and ceiling . . . the room now ~2 feet wider (and the leftmost part of that wall will go away soon)...

Scrap/leftovers from the builtins...

Trash pile... dumpster comes tomorrow...

_There's_ Yer Problem...

A hint for the Pop Quiz, maybe.  This is the one that had to be taken out.