Second half of October

I touched on this one in an update that was actually made during the second half of the month but it was mostly more planning for future things to come.

The engineer I talked to asked if I could get pictures from the attic space above the family room. Those are far too boring to post here because it’s mostly a bunch of shots of a dark space with framing and insulation. I also needed to cut out a strip about 1’ long of the ceiling just to see how it all ties together. The family room is now officially a part of the work zone. The engineer determined that a column will be needed due to a point load caused by the way the original roof was built and we put a design together.

As mentioned earlier, I also cut and framed the opening for the new doorway to the master bedroom. That wasn’t so bad – it was pretty much a weekend project.

I was still having problems figuring out just how bright LED lighting would be and how it would look in our kitchen. Answers from people I talked to ranged from not enough lighting to it’s way too much. The only way I could tell how it would look is to see for myself. It’s not pretty but at least it answered my questions.

With a week remaining in the month we have a design for what will be needed in order to remove the wall and raise the ceiling and the framers indicated that work should be able to happen around Thanksgiving. There wasn’t much that I could do in the kitchen at that point, so it’s time to really start working on the family room. That means the breakfast area table is now gone and I’m breaking through the floor again. All of this dirt is from a concrete topped patio original to the house. When the addition was put on the joists sat about ½” above the dirt and this area was badly rotten, in addition to not being built well to begin with. These two pictures were taken six days apart.

Dirt disposal took as long as the digging did and was every bit as tiring. I finally had to bring the truck around to the back of the house so I could load up heavy debris (broken bricks and pieces of concrete) and take those to the dump, and I dumped regular dirt in an overgrown area that someday will make a wonderful raised bed garden. Even on Halloween night I was making trips back and forth out there.