Day 19 - Top Floor Gutted and We Have Stairs Again

It's been a busy Memorial Day weekend at the Project Facelift house.  The top floor has pretty much been gutted.  There are still a few things to come out, like the chimney, and the water heater, but we're down to studs and insulation through a good portion of the upstairs.  Oh, and we have stairs again, so I was actually able to get up there to take pictures.

Here are some before and after shots.

Master bedroom and bathroom door two weeks ago.

Master bedroom and bathroom today.

North wall of the master bedroom area two weeks ago.

North wall of the master bedroom today.

Inside the turret on our first visit to the house.

Inside the turret today. The toilet won't be staying there.

In the south bedroom, looking north to what will become a bathroom and another bedroom.  That's the chimney going up through the middle.  It will be coming out.

The water heater closet is being removed to expand this into the third upstairs bedroom. We'll have a tankless heater downstairs.

Moving back downstairs now...

New stairs are in, with a new landing at the bottom and the raised floor at the entry. There will be a closet where those step-ladders are.

This is the framed wall of the den.

Looking back into the main portion of the main floor.  The old double doors are gone.

Day 18 - A Break in the Rain

I took advantage of the brief break in the rain today to get the back lawn mowed at the house.  I didn't want it to reach the point of becoming a major hardship to mow.

One of our carpenters was on site today doing framing in the front room.  The wall between the den and the living room is framed in, and he was working on the new floor at the front entry.  I didn't have my camera, so no pictures today.  I'll try to get in there for a few minutes tomorrow, and snap some more photos.  I have to get in during the day, because they've been boarding the doorways up at night.

Day 16 - Water Everywhere

We just had about 14 hours of steady, heavy rain which has turned the job site into a muddy mess. That neat and tidy excavation that we saw yesterday was looking like a moat this afternoon.

On the inside, there's been some more demo to the stairs in preparation for re-framing, the kitchen floor is missing, and the bathroom's been gutted. There's been some demo work done on the upstairs as well, but I wasn't able to get up there, due to the lack of stairs.

Stairs removed.

Kitchen floor removed.  It had some bad warps in it, and needed leveling.

Downstairs bathroom gutted.

We had a discussion with our contractor this afternoon about whether or not to do additional floor leveling in other areas of the main floor. If we rip up the floors, it also allows us to easily do some additional excavation in the crawl space where the clearance is pretty low. We opted to go ahead with that work because it isn't something we could easily go back and do later.

Our contractor advises that work will continue right through the Memorial Day long weekend. Here's hoping it's a little drier.

Excavation Work

We went by the house this afternoon to find excavation work underway. On the front, they are preparing the space where the new, full-width porch will be.  Out back, the house is growing a bit, and new foundation is being put in place for the extension.

Concern for the Beaver

Several people have mentioned to us that they think we should leave the poor beaver alone, or at least, not attempt to relocate him. Well, we've decided to pretty much leave him be, except for monitoring the water level in the creek to avoid flooding. Once we move into the house, the dogs will be in the yard constantly, and we can't guarantee they'll want to make friends with our creek dwelling rodent, but we'll see how that goes.

Adding Support and Removing Walls

There are some lovely square holes in the concrete floor of our front room. These are to accommodate new bearing points which will support the walls and roof of the new upstairs dormer.

Certain walls are starting to disappear too. The wall between one of the old bedrooms and the kitchen is down. Ultimately the kitchen, dining, and living area next to the fireplace will be open to one another, but we need to get some support beams into place first.

Dam Busting and Creek Clean Up

On Sunday afternoon I got to work on breaking up the two beaver dams that I found in the creek alongside the property.  One of the dams had been there for some time, and I initially thought it was just a natural build-up of debris.  A closer look revealed chewed branches and a trail on the bank where the beaver had been climbing in and out.  The second dam, close to the outlet pipe wasn't there a couple weeks ago, and contained lots of freshly cut branches.

Camille took these shots earlier in the day.  I came back later with rubber boots, a digging claw, and shovel to do a proper job.

Once I got into the creek, I discovered a bunch of garbage too.  In one small section I pulled out a plastic deck chair, two large buckets, a volleyball, a soccer ball, some aluminum screen, and half a dozen beer cans.

Remains of a beaver damn and garbage removed from creek.

Tonight we went back to check on things and the upstream dam has been rebuilt.  I'll go back tomorrow and knock it down again, and try to do a better job of clearing the surrounding bank.  If he persists, we'll see about having him trapped and relocated.

More Demo and Window Framing

We were surprised, but happy to see our contractors hard at work on a Sunday.  It looks like most of the window framing in the front room is done, and the old dining room window is in progress.  All of the kitchen cabinetry is out, and there's just the stubs of the plumbing left.

Framing for the main front window, and the den window to the left.

Framing for the side window at the bottom of the stairs.  The stairs are getting ripped out and re-framed as well.

Framing for the old dining/new sitting area window.  The demolition uncovered the old original archway.

Where the kitchen sink used to be.  That old window will be closed in to allow for more kitchen wall space.

Passage way to the front room.  Eventually there will be some French pocket doors here.

Extensive Demo Work Underway

The downstairs looked a lot different this evening, with walls starting to come out, and cabinets ripped out of the kitchen.  A temporary support wall is going up in the front room to support the upper floor while the front wall gets re-framed to accept new windows.

You can see the beginnings of the temporary support wall to the right, near the ladder.

The old fireplace hearth is coming out to make way for a new gas fireplace, and new built in cabinets on either side.

The window has been removed from the south wall.  This was the old dining area.

Looking toward the rear of the house into what was a bedroom.  This will become an expanded kitchen and dining area.

Looking into the old kitchen.  Eventually this will all be opened up.

Looking south from the old bedroom into the kitchen.

Looking north from one downstairs bedroom to the other.

The east wall of the third original downstairs bedroom.

What's left of the kitchen.

Beaver Update

In my previous post, I wrote that there didn't appear to be any dam building activity on the creek, but upon inspection today, we found recent dam activity near the outlet from the culvert.

Landscapers at the neighboring property have been dumping grass clippings in the creek too, which we're not too happy about.  Don't get Camille started on the effects of excess nitrogen on stream ecology.

Lucy and Laurel inspect the beaver pond.

At some point tomorrow I'll go over with a rake and dismantle the dam.  Hopefully if we hassle him enough, he'll just move.