Fun With Framing The First Floor

The past week in a nutshell:  Because of the steel issues we are two weeks behind.  The team is working double time to make it up.  I blinked and the house is framed. 

Yes!  Framed!!!

Warning: lots of pictures in this post.

Where to begin?  How about when you walk in the house. 

Welcome!

I know, that doesn't look like much.  But turn around. 

Entryway

It's an entryway closet!  Organization will be mine. 

We used to have a little "mudroom" which was similar to this construct.  We're keeping with that same idea because it's perfect for the layout of our home.  But we decided to make the closet longer than the old wall and only have the main front door instead of an inside door, too.

Now look to the left into the livingroom.

Niches in the Living Room

If there's anything this house will have a lot of, it's niches.  We are using every square inch!  The lower niche is for a recessed TV.  The upper is a design element.

Continue looking to your left.

Dining Area

This is the space formerly known as the dining room and staying a dining room. 

Look further to your left to the back wall.

Kitchen

The kitchen wall will be here.  The first appliance to the right of the slider will be the fridge that I'm sooooo excited to fill. 

Walk further into the space and you'll see this.

Back Wall

The powder room and pantry have been framed!!!

Powder Room

This is the best picture I could get of the powder room.  It is sooooo perfectly tiny.  The entrance is opposite the basement steps, so it will be out of the way.  We're putting an 8 foot door in the powder room because...

Three Openings

...it will mirror the 8 foot heights of the 2 shelving towers and pantry entrance.  See the headers?  Those will support a big, long barn door rail.  The door will be 36" wide to exactly cover either the pantry doorway, middle shelving tower or outer shelving tower.  I can finally picture it!!

Pantry

The pantry is teeny tiny, too.  Small enough for one person to fit.  Big enough to hide all my kitchen stuff!!!

Inside the Pantry

That beautiful tubing in there is the water and drain connections for a small bar sink in my precious pantry.  The running joke is that Steve and the boys will be enjoying the big, bright open main floor while I'll be hanging out in that 4'x4' pantry that I'm so in love with. 

Sad cause it'll probably be true. :)

Now turn to the left again.

Adios Staircase

Yup, kiss it goodbye.  We initially intended to keep the staircase.  But as the house was being stripped to its bones and leveled, the staircase post, steps and wall beneath it were becoming noticeably out.  Like waaaaay out.  Looking really bad out. 

So we made the decision to shed a tear and say adios.  I was upset at first, but now I'm excited.  Planning a new staircase means lots of cool ideas being considered.  I can't wait to see where it nets out!

So that's it for the framing of the 1st floor.  How about some fun before and afters?

Entry Before

Entry After

Ok, it's not really after, but kinda after. 

From the LR Before

From the LR After

After the demo and framing, anyway. 

From the Back of the House Before

From the Back of the House after

I'm still amazed when I walk in the front door.  I'm loving every minute of this.  Thank goodness we left the 3rd floor as is so I'll have something to do when we move back in!!