Structure I

Things are starting to move quickly around the house now, and a lot has happened since our last posting. First, we installed the door to one of the bedrooms and put up enough drywall to make the room complete, just in time for our roommate to arrive! Next, we've started the structural upgrades. We had to add four 4x8 beams and about fifteen 2x6 ceiling joists to support the ceiling in a new way so that we'll be able to remove some of the interior walls. And in the midst of it all, we made time for a little gardening and yard maintenance. We got help with this from Jason, Bernard and Leif's mom, Oda, too. The next step will be to clean out the house in preparation of some major demolition!!

This is the header framing for the new bedroom door. We had very tight clearances to work with here - about 1/2".

This is the complete door framing from within the room....

...and this is the same view with the door and some of the drywall installed.

Leif gets the tall jobs. :)


We cleared the underbrush out from the front of the house.

Leif and Oda dig up some plants from the side yard to replant in the newly cleaned out area.

The vines and ferns we planted along the driveway are starting to flourish.

Look at all that lumber! And it all needs to go up into the attic. We're installing these new ceiling joists and beams so that we can remove some of the existing walls that are currently being supported by the shorter ceiling joists.

Leif and Jason carry the first beam into the front yard. It's a 4x8 that is 18' long. We got them up into the attic by passing them from the front yard through a window and up into a hole we made in the ceiling.

They're twice as long as the car!

The first step upstairs was to move all of the ceiling insulation out of the area that we need to work in. That's it in the big pile in the back of the photo. Props to Jason for helping out on this!

The Work Area

Here are some brackets sitting on top of the bearing wall where the new beams and ceiling joists will rest. We put these in place first so we would know where the joists would need to go before we got them up in the attic.

Here's Jason maneuvering a joist into place. This is difficult because there are lots of intermediate supports and sloping ceilings that get in the way of rotating these things in the attic.

Peek-A-Boo!

Those first couple of attic pictures were taken with the flash on. Here's what it's really like to be working up there.

Plus, it's August, so it's really hot! Bernard found this out the hard way.

And did we mention that it's really messy work too?

Here it is almost done. All the joists and beams are in place and many of them are nailed in. All of the roof supports have been repositioned so that they now rest on the beams, which in turn, take the load to the bearing walls.

When this is done, we'll be ready to do some serious demolition. We'd like to plan a 'labor' day of our own for the Saturday of Labor Day weekend (Sept. 1st) to get started. We'll be taking out three major walls and most of the kitchen too. We'd appreciate as much help as we can get, and we will be providing lunch and lots of cold beverages. So, anyone who ever wanted to swing a 16 lb. sledge hammer around for a few hours, now is your chance!! Email me or 'comment' below if you'd like to come.