Doorways, plumbing, and more

new ceiling framed in

More stuff is happening and I finally was able to take some photos. They have started to widen the entrance into the new area-- and they are also raising 4 inches it so it will match the opening into the living room.  They widened the new doorway into the dining room (it will be wider still, by about 2 inches on either side) and have started to frame in the former entryway from the kitchen and dining room.  They have removed the wood framing around the former entry too, for reuse on the new doorway.  They also have framed most of the new ceiling.  It will be a slight drop from before, to about 8' 4" in the new kitchen space to hide the two beams we had to put in.  The ceiling height in Will's office will remain at 9' though.

The plumbers have come and gone. We are plumbed in for the loo, the sink, and the fridge.  We also have a proper gas line to where the stove will be. 

sink plumbing and new window opening

gas line and meter

The electrician is in today and has removed most of the old wire hanging out of the walls and managed to decipher a few more curious wiring issues.  When I left for jury duty, he was measuring for junction boxes for light switches.  Apparently we have high switches: 56" off the ground; most houses have them at 48".  It just means more wire in the end. 

fridge water line

starting to removing the wall in the foyer to open up that space more

new doorway into dining, minus the studs.  It will be wider still.

wood frame has been removed from former door into the dining room for reuse on new door,
and it has been framed (behind the dust barrier).

So far it has been an accident-free day; not the case on Monday.  The mason was cutting out the new window opening and perhaps he forgot that the bricks he was cutting out weren't toothed in, but once the mortar was cut and he removed a few bricks, the rest of the bricks in the opening slid downward.  His saw took much of the brunt of the falling bricks, but the mason's arm was still crushed.  He was rushed to the hospital and had to have surgery. The ulna was crushed and the mason has to have two plates and pins into his thumb.  Very very scary but he seems to be alright now.  Will and our project manager managed to remove the rest of the bricks and boarded up the opening so at least it was closed in for the night.  The mason has a partner who will be out to finish the window and remove the brick pillar.  All in all, not a way to start a Monday.  We are just very thankful that he is alright and continue to knock on wood that nothing else bad will happen.

Surprise in the Compost

We closed down the garden this weekend: ripping out the dead vines, pulling out the last of the carrots, and spread out some of the compost.   As Will was spreading out the dirt for the upper garden, he spots a plant in the middle of the pile.  He dug it out and lo and behold!  An avocado seed has cracked open and started to grow a tree!   We stuck into a pot and hopefully it will still flourish!

Tile sample

Here is a sample of the glass tile for the one wall where the sink and stove will be (where the windows are) and a small sample of the Silestone countertops we have chosen. 

The glass tile has clear, white, peridot, and smokey brown glass along side a stainless steel bar.  We are running the tile vertically to add to the height of the kitchen. We haven't picked a grout color yet, but I am almost positive it won't be a white. As you can see, the tiles are on a glass netting and come in 12 x 12 in sheets.  It should be fairly easy to put up-- all 24 linear feet of it.

The counter tops will also be the window sills and an attached circular table (opposite the cooker).   The color is called Amazon Grey and the material, Silestone, is really cool.  It is stain resistant, can take hot pans with out leaving a burn mark, and one don't have to use special cleaners for it. 

The color of the other walls is the same color we have in the living room, Pratt & Lambert's "Tobacco."  It is slightly darker than what is already in Will's office, actually.  The glass tile and counter top look great with that smokey brown-grey.   We haven't decided what exactly to stain the hardwood flooring we are putting down, but we are leaning towards a walnut finish.  Before you think that we will have such a dark kitchen, the cabinets are a creamy white.  Even though we got rid of three windows, we will still 10 windows in the whole space.  Plenty of natural light! 

Pipes and Bricks

We had a busy week in terms of workers: plumbers, masons, carpenters, and designers were all here at one point or other. This is where we stand in the kitchen reno as of Friday afternoon.

We have a solid bathroom floor out of new plywood.  The pipes for the toilet and the sink has been plumbed in.  The windows have been boarded up.

In terms of the rest of the room, all the pipes that had to be relocated have now been. The two radiator pipes in the removed wall have been relocated and the opening up of that room is now complete with a new header. 

The pipes from the former bathroom that were in front of where the new window will be have also been rerouted. 

Outside, the three windows have been bricked in. The mason returns on Monday to open the wall for a new window directly in between the old windows; hence why the two edges aren't fully flush with the wall.

boarded up former windows

the wall into Will's office is totally open now

getting ready for bricks

new bricks installed and setting.  The new window will be cut directly between the former two openings.

pipes relocated to the inner wall, where the new studs are.

the view from Will's office to the backdoor.  It feels so nice and big with that wall gone.

The pipes have been relocated, as their were directly in the middle of the new window opening.

The mason's platform

Mitzy, the mason's cutie pie puppy

radiator temporarily removed so a new sub-floor and floor can be laid

On the schedule for next week: finish the rough plumbing; laying the new sub-floor in the back part of kitchen; new window opening cut; electrics get removed and new wire laid out; and hopefully, that brick pillar will be removed.  The removal depends on the steel beam, which should be in now and ready to be welded to the current beam.  The thought is that all of this will be done and then inspections can happen on it and some of other trades (plumbing and electrics).  Fingers crossed that they can accomplish all of that.

Basic Walls

Today's progress seems to be bigger than it really is, but we have the beginnings of the walls for the new bathroom and the coat closet.  One can now see how the layout really will work and just how wide doorways and powder rooms are going to be. 

In the case of the powder room, not very wide at all.  It is the smallest that is allowed by code, basically about 3 feet wide. 

Here is another view. The door to the loo will be to the left and those windows are being blocked up. The toilet will run parallel to the windows.





















Opposite the bathroom is now the coat closet that will actually fit a hanger!  In this photo, technically, the blue ladder is *in* the closet.  If this was completely finished already, one would see french doors instead of the ladder.

Also, one can see the new opening (just off the to the right edge of the photo) into the dining room.

 

At the back of the house, we have a partial new header in, allowing one of the temporary support walls to be removed.  

Until the two radiator pipes (the black pipes) are moved, the other temporary wall has to stay.  Once those pipes have been moved, the other part of the header will be added and then the temporary support wall can be taken down.  (This photo is taken standing in Will's office, looking into the kitchen.)

Hopefully the photo below will give you a sense of the new layout for the cooking area.  You can see the stud that makes the corner of the new bathroom on the left hand side of the picture.  In front of that corner will be a cabinet.  Backing up to the bathroom is the dishwasher and then the sink--where the solid wall is now but a new window will be.  Where the copper pipe is now, the trash cabinet will be located and that single window is also blocked up.  Then comes the stove, the center of it located in the former doorway of the old bathroom.  Does any of that make sense?

Tomorrow, fingers crossed that the plumber can come and remove all the pipes.  Then, they can address the removal of the brick pillar/insertion of a new steel beam, as well as finish opening up that area in the back.

Framing

After a quiet weekend, lumber was delivered today: studs, plywood, and lots of nails.  Two guys worked to get two support walls up at the divide between the former eat-in area of the kitchen and Will's office.  The beam that supports the 2nd floor above had, at some point, been cut.  Tomorrow they will put in a new header to properly support the room and can remove the two support walls they built today.

In the meantime, we are waiting on the engineering company to give us a solution to the beam that goes across the back of the house that was the original back wall of the structure--the one also cut in two, with the two pieces being supported by that brick column.  

Also, I wanted you to see the mess that is the electrical wiring.  It is a combination of cloth wiring (that had just been cut and not properly tapped off), knob & tube wiring, and the current wiring, though illegally tapped.  We have one junction box that has 7 wires leading to other junction boxes.  So not up to building code.  All the wires have been taped together to get them out of the way, but it is still such a mess.  That will all be addressed in due time.

 Also, take a look at the sub-floor where the powder room used to be.  A long time ago, that sink and toilet combo had a tub too.  We think that some of the holes in the floor are from the tub or where a former toilet used to be.  The hole has a scalloped edge-- no jigsaw to cut a proper circle! 

 The scarier photo is this one below, which shows how there was no sub-floor underneath the linoleum underneath the sink in the bathroom.  Or that the toilet was properly supported.  See the circle with a rag on it, above the tip of my shoe? That is the flange for the old toilet.  Nice how the floor has either rotted away or been cut away.  The stud that cuts across the opening was added today.  The bottom of the hole is the bulk head in the basement's bedroom.  *sigh* Opening the walls has been an eye opener, that is for sure.  It is a wonder that the toilet hadn't leaked or that the house hadn't caught fire!  

Demolition, Part Two

dust barrier, sorta not working 

The demolition continued today. The floors were ripped out and more walls were removed. And lots and lots of dust was created.  The crew has put up a dust barrier to try to prevent it from moving around, but dust just gets everywhere.  

So the big news is that the engineering firm came by and has a solution to the load baring wall where the old powder room used to be.  Currently, there is a steel beam going across the room until it meets with the brick column, which formed one edge of the doorway to the loo.  Then there is a short steel beam across the expanse of the doorway that ties into the side of the house.  We need to add steel to steel and continue the beam across at one level.  So, that is a hiccup in the schedule, but one that we work around.

FYI: in the new layout, where you see the single window is where the new stove will be, so that window gets blocked up.  The brick column is messing with my stove, so it definitely has to go. 

Brick column has to be removed and a new header put across the opening.  The flooring was removed to reveal old tiles and enough space to level out the floors. 

The crew also took out that coat closet that was across from the basement door.  A useless coat closet because, as you can see below.  Inside the closet was a white corner piece: the back of the drinks cabinet in the living room.  The corner created  on L-shaped closet: too little of space to hang anything properly on the right side and too deep to find anything on the left side.  Now that closet is gone (to be relocated) and we have the start to the new opening into the dining and living rooms.  The wooden lathe to the right of the white column, left to where Stirling is standing, will be removed and that opening into the foyer will be enlarged.  And so you can get your bearings if you have seen the new layout, to the right of the opening/Stirling: that is the location of the new powder room. 

White column is back of drinks cabinet in the living room

For the most part, Will's office stayed the same today. Good news came when we ripped out the flooring in the rest of the space: we will be able to save the hardwood floor in the office. A new floor will be required in the former kitchen, but we will get matching sized planks (2 inches wide) and tooth it into the existing hardwood floor in the foyer and his office. Then we stain it-- and we haven't decided to try to match the rest of the house (we aren't refinishing the floor in other areas) or go a different color entirely. 

The floor in Will's office can stay!

The crew also started the new opening into the dining room.  Below, you can see the front of that drinks cabinet and through the hole, where the basement door is. The studs that you see now will remain there until Monday, when framing starts.

Here is another view of the opening, that includes the current doorway from the dining room into the kitchen.  It just gives you a different perspective.

 

The crew is now slightly ahead of schedule, so no work tomorrow.  Framing starts on Monday so we will have more to show you then. In the meantime, I have to call the project manager.  I am assuming that smelling gas isn't good.....