Saturday we had more help (so thankful).
We plugged away a good 7 hours of hard work. Remember that sub-floor I told you was done? Well it wasn't really. I took up the loose laid sub-floor and removed the previous "sub-floor" in order to install foam for even better insulation in the front entry.
So it's truly (deeply, madly) done now.
While I was at it, the boys were busy in the kitchen framing for our new ceiling. Originally, the kitchen was two rooms. All of the ceilings on the first floor are at 9'-6" except for a strip in the kitchen that led from the basement door to the back door of the house. It was lower in order to hide a structural beam.
When we ripped out the wall to make the room one large space, I hated the drop and decided we'd lose 1'-0' in the rest of the room to have a consistent ceiling height. It really wouldn't be too low and I'd have one ceiling plane instead of two. Knowing how many strange things will exist in this house (odd bump outs, etc.) I wanted a clean ceiling in this room.
So the boys started by adding a beam in place of where the original wall was. Then they added cross members between the existing beam and the new and then the new beam and the opposite wall.
Next up, they installed nailer boards around the perimeter of the room to attach the new framing too.
Then the joist hangers...
And before we knew it, the entire framing job was done.
It's amazing how just the framing of a ceiling makes the entire room appear to be one consistent room now.
We decided to make the ceiling level, instead of true, after much discussion and review of the process. While the windows are crooked (due to the previously sinking foundation in this room) we decided it would be best to have a level ceiling instead of one that would be crooked but would make everything else look semi-correct. It's an 82 year old house, for goodness sake, so some crooked windows can be expected right?
Our helpers even pulled all of the screws and nails from the existing floor joists in the dining room, living room and under the covered porch before we called it quits. And there were plenty of them. Now that that task is complete and once the plumbing is re-routed, we'll be ready for the new ceilings.
Sunday afternoon while Addison was having her nap and I was at home baking brownies (for real) Paul went to the house and cut holes in all of the tops of the exterior walls on the 1st floor.
We're doing this for our insulation company to be able to blow in insulation from the top of the walls between studs. Other than the brand new house that was built on our corner in 2009, our house is going to be the most energy efficient one in the neighborhood. Woot woot for low(er) electric bills! I mean, really, how low can an electric bill be for a 4,000 square foot building get? We still need to cut small holes beneath each of the windows and all of the holes on the 2nd floor but we're getting there.
And then Monday, thanks to the Veteran's of the USA and our company, we had the day off. We dropped Addison off at daycare and we went to work at Six Twelve.
I pulled carpet tack up from the 2nd floor bedrooms. I had already tried pawning this task off on many individuals and some how it had never been accomplished (because these people weren't idiots). So it was finally time, I got down on my hands and knees and started chipping away.
Other than just a couple of feet in one last room, it's done. The whole time I was up and down and hammering and pulling and cursing under my breath, I concocted an entire scene of how the carpet came to be. I could see little ole Dorothy Cathey, convincing her husband that wood flooring was old and outdated. That carpet was the wave of the future and that they better hop on board fast. She would throw herself across a chaise lounge in the sun room, in her long skirt and button up shirt, hair coiffed perfectly, and oh so dramatically she would tell him that all of her friends had carpet floors and that they should too or they'd look behind the times. By the time the carpet crew was there for the install she'd convinced him that everyone would love the carpet. I mean who wouldn't?
This girl, Dorothy. This girl.
After I finished the 7/8ths of the carpet tack before giving up (still cursing little ole Dorothy), I finished spray painting that dang railing outside. The minute it got over 50 degrees I was out there finishing the 1-1/2 railings I had left to complete. I can finally check that task off of my list. Can I get a "Hallelujah"?!
All the while Paul was working downstairs, cleaning and prepping and installing the new joists for the floor in what we've deemed the "bonus room". It is currently 5" sunken from the living room and 5-1/2" sunken from the kitchen floor. We're raising it to be a flush floor across. Or kind of.
Once Addison was down for the evening, Paul was back at the house, sweeping, organizing and prepping for the coming week.
That's the cleanest our living room has been in a month!
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