Slowly, But Surely

We seem to making some progress. We have a full opening from the foyer into the new area outside of the closet/bathroom/basement entry.  It feels so nice and spacious.  It will be a lot better flow of traffic, especially since you won't have to walk past the basement door in a narrow passage to then turn around and open it.  We aren't removing the door frame entirely, as we need some sort of transition for the floor.  We are putting hardwood down again, but we will refinish it a different, darker color than the rest of the flooring on this level.  

 

There will be a wooden frame on both sides of the opening here and so they have left about three inches on either side. The new opening is slightly wider than 4 feet.  

 This photo gives you an idea the new flow of traffic in the house. You will be able to easily circulate through the house to get to the dining, sitting, or tv room as well as easy access to the loo. No more walking through the kitchen to use the toilet!

ceiling in new foyer/basement door

 

We have a ceiling framed for the majority of the space, including above the basement door and we have junction boxes with wires running through them.  None of the wires are live yet-- subpanel to go in on Monday, so maybe by the end of next week, we will have lights in the new areas.  What the electrician has also been able to do is untangle the former kitchen wiring from the rest of the house.  Meaning that none of the rest of circuits in the house are shared in the kitchen-- which is how it was and so out of code.   

We also have the majority of the framing down towards the back of the kitchen: in the former door way, in the way back, and around the new header/bump out that forms a separation into Will's office area (and basically is there to hid the radiator pipes we had to move). 

 The doorway into the dining room was also widened and then framed out properly. We have a new light switch in place as well, along with an cutting in the wall where the very first switch was.  It was a bit of a mystery for the electrician couldn't find where the wiring started for our old switch.  None of us were, therefore, surprised to learn that when the door was moved to the end of the dining room, wiring was just run from the original switch without moving the junction box at all.  Again, against code, but now fixed. 

exhaust fan for the bathroom

The electrician also ran a wire to the outside of the house so we can add a motion light fixture out there to light the path down the side of the house.  It will be on an inside switch as well, so we can easily turn on the light if necessary.