Kitchen Wall a' Fall...

Concrete block is Gone! 

I made sure to include this before picture of the kitchen addition wall. This was an addition from the 1950's (I'm guessing). It was small and with the concrete block it made it impossible to insulate along with the fact it just wasn't very appealing to the eye. We had the chimney removed because it was no longer in use and there was no reason to keep it.

The before picture..

 This is demolition day. It was a fabulous 54 degree day. Of course I was not part of the demolition crew, unless you count me as the clean-up crew. After they got started it actually came down pretty quickly.

Staring at the top....

We took the door out (we are re purposing it in another part of the house)

Moving right along..

The next day the framing crew came (that is me and my husband) Of course its 26 degrees!!!! And I was freezing my !@#$ off!!!   You can see here we framed in a new larger door. We needed to add at least one 36' door to be able to fit furniture and appliances in the house. And a nice big window!

North side of the house

West side of the house. Nice large window!

Almost done

We wrapped it and added the downspout...

And it never got above 40 degrees while I was on duty. I'm still cold....

Attic Space Galore!!!

Attic Space

The attic space is  really coming together. This space was basically and unfinished attic before we started.  (You have to get to this room through another room, so I suppose it just makes the boys room bigger). The good news is I am learning how to frame walls and I'm getting really good at cutting on the table saw. I tried to document the knee wall going in as we went.

The attic before we started.

 

I'm standing at the door in this picture....

Here you can see the wall closet we framed in.

Standing at the door with the closets on my right..

Standing at the door, closets on the right.

Another view of the closets.

And the knee wall...

 The best part about the last picture is the gray colored tube running behind the knee wall. It means HEAT!!!! It has been brutal this winter and figures about the time its warming up this beauty shows up....

Ta-Da!!!!! Isn't it beautiful!!!!

Stay tuned! I have lots more to show you.

No More Headbanging!

Headbangers not allowed!

We have affectionately referred to the closet over the stair as the headbanger. Mostly because my husband and anyone over 5'8" bangs their head on the floor of the closet from one of the bedrooms upstairs. We always assumed the they had built the closet out into the stairway....but as you can tell in the third picture, they chopped (I tried to capture the actual chop marks on the wood) a hole in the floor to make room for the "new" staircase.

We already removed the flooring in the closet so we can reuse it in the house where there is some damage.

Just another view, there was a wall there.

 So I hope you can see the way they cut the floor out in these next 2 pictures. I can just see someone with an axe chopping away at the floor to make a grand staircase.

I suppose with  the tools they  had back then this is probably pretty good?

Crazy!

 Here is a view from downstairs before my hubby and I dismantled the closet floor. He is always talking me into things that seem a little crazy. Like balancing that beam on my shoulder and carrying it down the stairs. Luckily no one was insured in removing the floor! And by "no one" I mean me!

Downstairs view looking up

Couple sledge hammer hits later...

And the floor joists were gone..Then it was time for the beam. I had to put down the camera so I could help my hubby get this down.

 Then Taa-Daa! It was all of a sudden a gorgeous wide open stair well. I can't wait to hang the chandelier that just came last week in this space. It's one of my favorite spaces in the whole house!

I love that there are 2 large windows in the stairs.

Looking up from down stairs.

Standing in the front room looking up. I'm so glad we opened up the wall here!

Looking straight down the stairs. This is a new view for this house.

 Love It!!!!!

A Few New Walls!

New Walls!

We have been very busy trying to create a master bedroom in the "new" old house. There were three rooms on the main floor that we decided to make into a master bedroom, bathroom and closet. The picture on this post are the master bathroom.

Just the beginning of framing the walls for the new master bath.

This is the new wall creating a bathroom for the master

The picture below shows the rectangular master bath. The sinks will be on the right, directly across from the windows. I am actually standing in the shower taking this picture.

We will have plenty of light in the master bath.

This wall is separating the bath from the closet

The sinks will go on the other side of this wall.

In this next picture I am standing in the hallway looking towards where the closet will be.

You can see in the ceiling where the wall will go.

The hallway from the main house to the master bath and closet.

We have been working so much that I haven't had a lot of time to blog, so I may just post another blog today! Stay tuned!

New Beams, New Year!!!

Well, one good thing about the snow is I have had plenty of time to post on the blog...twice this week! We have been stuck at home for 3 days. We have a lot of great thing happening at the house. You can see the kitchen is much bigger than it was. We added a nice big green beam so we could remove the wall separating the dining room and old kitchen. Now we have one big kitchen. In this first picture I am standing in the hallway, in front of the cellar door.

The current kitchen floor plan

In the next picture I am standing in front of the windows in the kitchen looking into the dining room.

Kitchen, looking into the dining room

Kitchen, different angle ( you can see the cellar door)

This is the main level 1/2 bath and laundry room. We decided to make the space under the stairs, usable space.

Main level bathroom and laundry room

Under the stairs

Under the stairs (other view)

You can see the new wall in the picture below. We have measured and measured and measured to come up with a usable plan for the space under the stairs. The square to the left is for the washer and dryer and the 5 sided room is the 1/2 bath. If it all works we should have be able to fit a toilet and corner sink in the room on the right. I know...I know... It took 3 of us about an hour and a half to figure this out. So cross you fingers!

The wall is framed to separate the 1/2 bath

 We decided to bump the room out to follow the stairs to allow more room for the washer and dryer. I mean what else was I going to do with the that space between the wall and the stairs???

So the odd space under the stairs will be usable space

 You can see the new beam here...I call her Georgia...Georgia Pacific.

Good look at the new beam (dark orange)

 Here is another good look at the new beam in the kitchen (aka The Green Machine)

The other new beam (green)

The new electric is going in also, it's a little harder to take pictures of that. I will try to keep everyone up to date.

Gorgeous Snow 2014

If you happen to live somewhere else other than central Indiana, you may not know that we received about 12" of snow yesterday. What made this snow so pretty is that it was so wet that it stuck at piled up on every branch and power line in the city...  i.e. Gorgeous snow! (But dangerous) I took this opportunity to go out and take some pictures.

The cellar door looks like the secret door to narnia

Believe it or not, this is a Magnolia bud!! No really, it was a green fuzzy bud on the Magnolia tree in the yard

101st Street view

You can barley see the house through the trees!

You can see a normally very busy Westfield Blvd on the far left...not a car in site!

Oops! I left my ladder on the persimmon tree...but its so pretty!

Fortunatly, we did not loose any major trees or tree limbs...yet!