Turning the Corner

We still have a very long way to go, but this past week we started turning the corner from tearing things apart to putting things back together! It is still a huge mess---and will be for a while---but its exciting to see some things taking shape! Specifically, the contractor has put in the coat closet and the pantry, has started reconfiguring the bedroom closets, and has put up sheetrock in the laundry room downstairs. Here are the pictures!

First off, another couple of pictures of the gaping hole in our ceiling - you can actually see the steel beam here! Apparently it was not supported quite as well as it should have been, so they are still in the process of going back and securing it.

Here they are starting to frame up my pantry...

And then hang the sheetrock...

I'm very excited to have a spacious pantry!!

Craig working hard, pulling nails out of studs so that they can be reused :)

They also started framing up the coat closet - straight ahead when you walk in the door.

Putting up sheetrock on the closet...

And we have a closet!

We also worked in the bedrooms this past week. We pulled up all the carpet in the hallway and in the rooms and started working to reconfigure the closets.

Hallway sans carpet (pictures are a little out of order here - as you can tell, we hadn't quite completed the closet yet here, but I'm trying to group the pictures by project!)

Guest bedroom without carpet. This is one of the only rooms where we are not doing any major changes (other than painting over these bright yellow walls!!)

Before our master bedroom had one closet right by the door.

Now we are adding another by closing up the closet in the room next door and opening it up on our side of the wall!

A look from the other side - the office or other guest room - where we are closing up the closet.

This is also in the office. Since we are stealing the closet from that room, we are turning the hall linen closet into a small closet for that room. This is where they have cut out the wall in the office and closed up the doorway in the hallway.

Finally, they closed up the stairway and laundry room this week.

Entrance to the laundry room at the bottom of the steps.

Standing in the laundry room looking back at the doorway.

So right now the laundry room is open to whats left of the half bath downstairs. We will eventually put up a wall and finish out the bathroom. The bathroom will also connect under the stairs to the room(s) that we build in the back of the basement. For now, I'll probably put up a curtain or something.

So this is our progress from last week! Still slow, but we're trying to appreciate the little milestones! I'm also realizing that its going to be a bit of a challenge to update this blog on a regular basis (I started on this post over the weekend and here I am Wednesday night finishing it up!), but y'all bear with me!

Supporting the Roof and Continuing Demolition

The next part of the demolition process was to take out the studs. To do this, Craig used a reciprocating saw to cut the nails underneath the stud and then pull it out. We are saving the studs to be reused in framing up the closets, pantry, laundry room, etc. We started by taking out the non-load-bearing studs.

Next, we needed to support the roof so that we can take out the load-bearing walls in the living area of the house. Fortunately my dad is a steel fabricator so he was able to hook us up with some steel beams to put in the attic! These are the beams in the driveway after they were delivered.

On Wednesday of this past week (October 9th), David came in and installed the beam. We weren't able to go over to the house Wednesday night because it was not yet stabilized. On Thursday when we were able to get back in, there were giant holes in our ceiling where they had brought the beam up!

Once the beam was installed, we were able to take out the rest of the studs. It was very exciting to see the room start to open up completely! One step closer to envisioning what it will look like in the end!

 We still had our light switch hanging from the ceiling after we cut out the beam that it was attached to!

Friday night when we got over to the house, they had closed up the hole where the stairs used to be and moved the stairs to their new location. This was another really exciting step! The room seems so much bigger without a staircase right in the center!

Things are coming along downstairs as well. David and his guys have started closing in the stairs, as you can see above, and framing up the laundry room. They've also done a lot of electrical work, including moving the electrical box in the basement.

 This is the back corner of the basement, where the room used to be.

This is the view from the back corner (where we will eventually finish out a bedroom, office, etc.) looking at the newly moved and enclosed stairs. There will be a door underneath the stairs that leads to the bathroom.

On the other side of the staircase is where they are framing up the laundry room.

Our garage is full of our stuff, cabinets and doors we are saving to reuse, and ripped out materials that we will eventually load up and take to the dump!

Our main project Friday night was to work on the floors. Although we've pulled up the carpet, they are not totally level so we are going to have to pull up some of the sub-floor as well. The lowest sub-floor is made of 1x12s. There is plywood over the sub-floor in the front of the house, but the back of the house has OSB covered in linoleum. We pulled up all the OSB so we can see what the issue is underneath. We are hoping to be able to put down plywood where we pulled up OSB and then lay hardwoods on top of it.

Here you cans see where we are piling the OSB from the back of the house on top of the plywood which we are (hopefully) not pulling up in the front of the house.

Craig said that prying up the floor was the most difficult work yet!

We had our first injury Friday night as well. While Craig was prying up the floor, I was loading it in to the back of his truck to go to the dump. Unfortunately, the boards had long nails sticking up out of them and I made a wrong step in the back of the truck. The nail came through my shoe and into my big toe - not a particularly fun experience. The next morning we went to the doctor where they x-rayed my toe to make sure no rust or other particles were left inside. Fortunately, the nail came out cleanly! They gave me a tetnus shot and a Rx for an antibiotic just to be safe. Its pretty sore to walk on, but if this is the worst that happens in this process we will be thankful!

After bandaging up my foot, I came back to try and help. We started hammering down all the nails before loading them in the truck to prevent another accident :)

So far this renovation has been hard work, but a wonderful experience for both Craig and me. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who is so handy with these type things and is working so incredibly hard to make our first home perfect. He is conked out on the couch next to me right now, exhausted! I love you Craig!