more house work

Micah was able to accomplish quite a bit over the weekend on his own. I had two birthday parties to attend so unfortunately i couldn't allocate the time.

Above: New doorway between the foyer and the family room. Widened to allow for a future installation of french doors.

Above: Doorway between kitchen and family room. Still needs drywall on left framework. The doorway was shifted to the right and widened.

Above: Brand new doorway from the dining room into the backyard. This doorway replaced the windows that will be moving to the north side (immediate left wall) of the room. Brick work still needs to be finished on the outside of the house. Molding/insulation around the door needs be installed.

Above: Different angle from the foyer side.

Above: More trash/wood scraps/old door frames etc.

Renovations...continued

We are starting to put in some accent pieces in the living spaces in an effort to make that part of the house more livable. The kitchen/dining room will be an ongoing project and will be shielded off from the rest of the house when we need to make a mess.

A few pictures of the latest developments:

Above: the new doorway from the fireplace room into the kitchen. there was a wall where the ladder is sitting. A very short wall (approx. 8") will be added from the opposite side.

Above: new trim/moulding and corner pieces around the windows. this really dresses up the windows very nicely.

Above: the same trim/moudling as we used on the windows. this is used around the doorways, windows and major thresholds from the living room side.

Above: on both sides of the foyer (the other side has yet to be installed, need to wait until we install a new door with framework), some nice looking MDF with a molded top is going in to break up the immensity of the wall. Its all primed and ready for paint. There is a color scheme in the works, but the flooring (tile) needs to be chosen yet.

New doors to the backyard have been ordered and will replace the windows that are currently on the east wall of the dining room. We are having someone install the doors and must wait until he is available. Some custom mason work will be done to the brick exterior. The windows will move from the east wall to the north wall which will bring a lot more light into the room.

Hopefully we can start priming the walls in the living space this week, move the furniture back and start living in there again...

Yeah, it wasn't done.

After the first "mudding". =]

First application of drywall compound is on the walls. The prepping of edges and seams took more time than applying the mud. In the center of image #2 you can see where the 3 rooms come together. At a last minute meeting of the minds, we decided to make this a column, of sorts, rather than a flat wall as originally intended. Cornerbeads were used to keep the edges straight, but aligning them top to bottom proved to be a bit challenging. Then getting the mud on to create a visually-squared vertical edge took some finesse. Never fear though, your intrepid handymen ventured onward and succeeded with flying colors.



Sanding and a second application are planned for tomorrow. Also planned is moving the TV and components to the South wall of the living room. Hopefully, after a thorough cleaning, we can have our living spaces back.

Its done! well, sort of...

OK, so its not so much done as its finally mostly started. Maybe...

The framing is complete, the drywall is hung (97%). The new counter tops, cabinetry, appliances, windows, doors, etc. are all to come.

Hey, it was a monstrous task and I'm not entirely sure how we completed so much in such little time (cumulatively) , but we did it. Cleaned up most some less than half of the mess last night.

Just an idea of the mess we created in this process. (no, its not all of it, not by a long shot).

Renovations pt.2

Spent about 9 hours working on the renovations yesterday. 4:30-1:30 (yeah, we keep odd hours).

Still plenty to do before the finishing work begins, including but not limited to: electrical, flooring, window and door installation.

Here are a few more shots to show the newest changes.

The first span in place between the dining room and the living room.

Same as above shot from the west entrance to the kitchen.

After removing the small wall between the kitchen and dining room. Vertical studs are support so the roof doesn't fall down. =]

Second span is in place between the kitchen and dining room. That span is about 165" long (almost 14'). Both spans are sandwiched LVL (laminated veneer lumber) 9.5" wide by 1.5" deep. They are heavy and it took quite a bit of ingenuity to get these with only two people.

Same as above, from the NW corner of the kitchen.

More to come.

Kitchen Demolition!

...and renovation.

Spent a good portion of Saturday removing the top half of one wall between the kitchen and living room and framing out a large "window". Plans have been drawn up to update (read: modernize)the kitchen and living spaces. This should have a dramatic impact on the resale value of the home.

A few pictures showing the project in its midterm. Click each image to view larger.




Photo Bite: images shot with my new Olympus 850SW camera. The in-camera panoramic tool created the shots above. The camera can assemble up to three images and export as a single jpeg file.