Raising the Floors

With a composite beam of three 2x10 boards and basement jacks the first floor was stabilized and more or less leveled. Since this took much less time than anticipated various ceilings, walls, and trim were removed. After the last dumpster load of material ripped out of the house I mentioned to Doug that "It really wasn't possible to tear more things out of the place" I was distinctively mistaken. Since I cannot get a burning permit for my scrap wood getting rid of it is quite slow and another dumpster may be on the horizon. Hopefully by the first few warm days of spring the whole place will be framed, just in time for my home tax credit which will be probably used to pay an electrician. The goal is to have it more or less done and liveable by October 2011.

Actually Building the Building

That is correct, new walls and new floors have been put into about 20% of the house. It isn't much in the long run, but it marks the first point where work being done is constructive for the first time. Since October (the last post) work had more or less continued in the same fashon of ripping things out and making plans for the new layout, so I decided that no real new posts were necessary. What used to be the kitchen is now framed in and will be a rental room/home office. The old wall dividing the house was mostly loose uprights connected to floor joists which had been sawn through at varrious places. Once the old wall was ripped out a new frame with a double header 2x10 was put into place a foot or so out from its original location. The entrance is framed and will still be more or less an entrance to the house though the stairs will no longer have the same locations. The original stairs to the basement will be used and the interior window in the entry room will become a door to the basement stairwell. The stairs to the second floor will be moved to the three seasons room and be an "L" type. There are still details to be worked for the design and layout, but in the next few weeks I will scan in scaled plans which are most representative of work being done. Work will resume next Saturday and I believe that the goal will be to reinforce the basement with framing matching the framing of walls above and jacking up some of the sagging floors.