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.