Demo'ing, Framing & Leveling...Oh My!

Lots of tech issues in the temporary apartment.  And I'm not tech-y.  Steve is even less so.  :(

But...progress is being made at the house and I'm sooooo excited.

I posted this on Instagram earlier this week:

Level temporary floors!  Framed opening for the slider!  Bare joists everywhere!

(Here's the before for reference)

Lots o' Walls

Suddenly I feel claustrophobic.

That's better. 

It's hard to tell, but the opening is huge.  Those are 9'+ ceilings. 

Maybe this will help.

Little kid is almost 4' tall

See?  Big.  As in almost too big.  In fact, actually too big. 

When I ordered our super fancy slider, I used the maximum measurements that I could find.  Remember our little plumbing issue?  Well, I never closed the hole in the upper corner cabinet.  Meaning I could stretch a tape measure from the bottom of a visible ceiling joist to the tile floor.  I took that measurement, reduced it a bit for drywall & an unlevel floor/ceiling, double checked with designer & contractor, and spec'ed out a slider and transom filling the height from top to bottom. 

Because super fancy means a 12-week lead time, there was no way for anyone to know at order time that the ceiling was out by 4 INCHES!!!  Thank goodness we're working with a super fantastic designer and her super fantastic contractor, because they came up with a super fantastic design element to disguise the fact that the finished ceiling will be too low for the height of the transom.

It's hard to explain the fix.  It involves a lip and lighting.  I'll dedicate a whole post to it when the framing is finished.  :)

Here's a few shots of the 2nd floor:

Guest Room above Kitchen

As part of the slider/transom framing down below, the first joist had to be removed.  It won't be replaced completely, since that gap will be part of the kitchen "ceiling fix".  But don't worry, dad, that hole in the floor won't be there when you return to our guest room.

Jake & Henry's Room

At first, we just wanted to replace the floors, switch the closets between the guest & boys' rooms, replace all trim and do some master bedroom & bathroom work.  But then we found out there was NO INSULATION IN ANY EXTERIOR WALL IN OUR ENTIRE HOUSE.  So we made the decision to demo the 2nd floor entirely.  It only makes sense to do it now, while the house is torn up already.  Sprayfoam was planned for the main floor...just bring it up to the 2nd floor, too. 

How long is that ball of string?

Remains of wall between Master & Boys'

This will be a wall of closets.  Pax, to be exact.  I am waiting with bated breath for the release of the new Pax door designs...coming to my local Ikea soon...

Master bay window

Already half-demo'd.  Say goodbye to that knob and tube hanging there.

All in all, things are going well.  Moving along, slowly but surely.  We had some hangups with the structural side of things.  Steel vs Wood.  Don't even get me started.  I think structural engineers like steel so they can sleep at night.  I don't need to know that I can land a helicopter on my house to sleep at night...but at the end of the day, I guess it helps. 

How about a good old before and after to finish up?

Before

After

Seeing pictures like this make me sooooo excited!!!!!