It's been a couple of weeks and it was a slow start but we're off to the races now. We got the permits for the plumbing, electrical and framing and there's been many changes and some surprises...(BTW, I apologize for the sideways photos but I just can't find any button anywhere that will allow me to rotate them. Anybody have the answer???)
The first thing to happen was the floor in the kitchen was gutted. It was quite a shock to walk in and see the crawl space underneath in full view! I wasn't expecting that so yeah, I had to catch my breath. But some of the joists underneath had to be replaced for leveling. The bathroom was also gutted down to the studs (but the floor remained).
The living room ceiling has been taken down. Initially I was told that the bowing down of the ceiling was caused by the heavy coats of spackle that were put on it - likely to cover up water stains from a previous leak. We had the same issue in the master bedroom. However, it was discovered that the joists were uneven and the ceiling hadn't had proper support thereby causing a huge bow in the center. I guess at some point it would've all just come crashing down! So the plan initially was to cut out the parts of the ceiling that were damaged and place sheetrock in the bare areas for a smooth ceiling and call it a day. Surprise! The entire ceiling had to be demoed, joists replaced and ceiling replace. In the LR, as of this afternoon, the new vaulted joists had been installed and the MBR ceiling had been knocked down. At least I'm getting a beautiful new high-ceilinged LR out of it!
A new awning also went up
And my most favorite part up to now is the fireplace. The lovely gas heater fireplace. I tore it down myself so it was extra gratifying!
Here's what it looked like at purchase:
When the wood came off I found this red brick with an interior of white brick. The top of the back wall is actually caving towards us. I guess it would've crumbled at some point. There were also several corpses in the 4 inches of black dirt on the floor of the fireplace.
When the red brick was removed, I saw that the bricks had covered up the original fireplace, which is the arch-shaped brick you see in the photo below. So weird to have been covered up, right? Also, the white brick side-walls jut out past the walls on either side now. The only reason I could come up with as to why the original fireplace was covered up by a white and red brick monster then by the ghastly gas heater is because it wasn't up to code and was a fire hazard. You see how the wall was heated up? There's black burn marks all around the fireplace on the plaster of the walls!!
So all in all, I'm still very excited about this. It's a real construction zone there! HVAC has come through, plumbing has begun, electric is still needed. Unexpected expenses were the ceiling joists and I have to get a new hot water heater because the one there won't work. I'm sure there'll be more. But I've found myself a great team and I can't wait to get back there tomorrow to see the ceilings!
More soon!!
