This is the first step towards ridding the downstairs of this massive wall separating the entryway/stairway from the soon-to-be living room area. I made a preemptive strike on this wall because I needed to access some of the existing electrical as well as eventually jack up the beam/upstairs floor.

(click on an image for a larger view)

I just finished framing 2 of the 4 doorways upstairs. The doorway on the left will be left open without a door and the doorway on the right will lead into the master bedroom. The doors are going to be huge - 34″ wide by 8′ high. All the interior doors in the house may be one of my pet projects. If I figure out what I want to do I’m going to build them myself.

It has been a while since an update but much has happened at the house. As you can see in the photo, we’ve got the entire front upstairs gutted down to the studs. Since those two existing front rooms will be combined there are a few things that need to be done to make that happen:

Once the tenants leave downstairs we will shut down/drain the heating system and remove the baseboard heat in the old kitchen and cap the pipes.

Whoever created the kitchen upstairs removed a rather large portion of a load bearing wall and caused about a 1 inch sag in the top beam. We could leave it as is since most likely, the roof load has settled and there wouldn’t be any more movement. But, y’know, you gotta do it right. So we are going to jack up the top beam and run about a 15 foot microlam header all the way across. This will also allow us to open up the wall downstairs and to pass the load down down around both openings and into support posts in the basement.

Once the header is in place, the entry wall will be re-built and the old seperating wall removed (the one that Rachel was seen kicking down). Then, a new radiator will go in place of the baseboard heat.

In the meantime, there is quite a bit of carpentry and electrical work to do. Onward and forward.