Starting on the floor

After hiring some guys to clean up the drywall and insulation mess, bear started on the floor. He has to basically lay joists like a deck so we can raise the floor to the same level as the rest of the house.

We discovered a few interesting things about the construction of our house. First, the stud in the front corner wasn't touching anything. In fact it seems like none of the studs on the exterior wall were supporting anything. I guess we don't have to worry about load bearing walls.

The second thing we discovered was that you can see outside from the bottom of the wall! You can see in the picture below, which is the light shining through the bottom of the back exterior wall. I guess we solved the mystery of how water was getting into the house. How to fix it? Bear plans on pouring concrete on the outside and also building a French drain.

All the boards are cut so hopefully in a few weeks we can have a raised floor and some new walls. Still in track to beat that six month deadline!

Treasure!

Ebear continued on with demo today and was able to finish up the ceiling.

Surprisingly he found some treasure up in the attic. Well I guess it could be considered treasure if you are a guy who is into 1970's playboys :) Its funny to think that a teen in the 70's went to the corner of the attic to hide his dirty magazines. Now that I think of it I am not sure I even want to touch then (shudders).

We finally decided to finish what scrambles started.

Well we decided to go for it and redo the converted garage that scrambles so graciously decided to start demo on during our kitchen remodel. The plan is to turn the space into a master suite complete with a second bathroom. What is our laundry area will become part bathroom and part walk in closet. The washer and dryer will be in our walk in closet, which I thought might be a little weird, but we have no place for a dedicated laundry. I guess the upside is the ultra convenience of having a washer and dryer in the closet.

Here is the kicker, we decided to do almost the entire project ourselves. We figured it can't possibly take us any longer than the kitchen and we hired a professional to do that. So we are gonna try to do it on our own. We win if we finish in less time than it took for the kitchen, which, by the way, took 6 months.

I think we are on track for a win! The Plummer has already jackhammered through the foundation, tied into the city lines, and fixed the yard up, all in the span of 4 days.

Today E decided to try his hand at demo while I took care of baby bear. He did pretty good and got almost all the drywall off. He just has the ceiling left.