Bathroom Studs

The old bathroom south stud wall is out and a new one is in. The new bathroom doorway is at the center of the photo. As you walk in, the door will swing to the left against the bathtub. The toilet will remain where it is and the sink will be on the right. The wall that separates the bathroom from the expanded kitchen will come straight out from just right of the square picture window (above the toilet).

Caustic Acoustic

Until this morning, the basement ceiling was covered in acoustic tiling. We've pulled it out and as a result added another 5 inches of head height, which makes a huge difference. The room will eventually be an office, a bedroom and an entertainment room.

Insulating noise between the first floor from the basement is a significant part of this project. Upstairs, we're installing a soundproofing underlayment beneath the wood floors. The underlayment is made of 93% recycled rubber materials and is almost a half inch thick. If the underlayment doesn't block all the noise we want it to, we'll attach strips of glued double-lam sheet rock to the underside of the main floor in between the basement ceiling joists.

The finished ceiling will have exposed joists and systems (HVAC, electrical, etc.), but we'll paint everything one color to give the whole thing a unified look.

Rough Kitchen

The new kitchen floor plan is taking shape.

Yet More Front Porch Deconstruction

A view facing Northeast.

More Front Porch Deconstruction

This photo stitch faces Northwest. The roof is all that remains of the porch, which is lying collapsed on the ground by the front doors. The crew tacked plywood sheathing onto the bump-out, which now has a clear and definite form.

Front Porch Deconstruction

The front entry upper and lower steps and porch floor are out. Our plan is to replace what used to be the lower set of stairs with stone slabs so we can continue the visual horizontal continuity of the slope. The upper set of stairs, leading to the new deck (part of which will include the front porch), will be Ipe (Corteza Amarilla), which is a tropical hardwood and is about two to three times as hard as oak. It is a dense, strong wood, and is one of the most durable construction woods available. The Ipe we use in this project will be sourced from a certified sustainable forest.

The kitchen bump-out (mostly covered by a silver tarp) is visible to the right. This angle provides a better idea of the depth of the bump-out, which extends only about 18" from the main wall.

Bump-Out Framing

The rough framing for the kitchen bump-out is just about done. The large square in the center will hold two windows and there will be a window seat in front. We're putting in pantry space on either side of the windows. This photo is facing dead east. The bathroom is out of the photo to the left.

Backyard Update

Sheathing for the West side of the house is about finished. The crew is running out of yard space to store their various piles of debris, tools and building materials.

Oh, and the blue blob is receding.

Systems

The light was good this morning, so we snapped this shot of an otherwise very dark place at the center of the basement. The brick chimney used to stand right behind the hot water heater (foreground). The furnace is on the right. The ductwork, plumbing and wiring are all over the place. Maybe we should call Central Services to clean it up.

Spring!

It's been a gorgeous week, and the guys from Green Hammer have made ridiculously excellent progress.

East Wall, Opened Up

The East wall again, now with siding and studs cut out to make room for the kitchen bump-out. The tarp is obscuring some of the opening in this photo. The bit of siding peeking out from behind the tarp is a thin section which has the electric meter still attached. The electrician is visiting the site today to move wiring around so the crew can continue with the framing.

East Wall, No Plaster

The plaster has been pulled off the entire East wall which, because we are cutting half of it out to put in a bump-out for the kitchen, must be reinforced according to code.

The ceiling is also visible here. The floor joists added for the second floor now double as the ceiling joists for the first floor.

Ceiling Debris

Joists and ceiling boards ready for recycling and reuse.

Goodbye, Walls and Ceiling

Most of the the old first floor stud walls and nasty green ceiling are gone. We're elated to be rid of the original ceiling because it gives us another 4" of head height on the first floor, plus bringing it down brought with it all the dead mice, rodent feces, squirrel nests, old shingle and other construction materials camping out up there. The construction materials and most of the dirt we found up there were from the second floor addition, completed circa 1992.

The wood from this phase of demolition will go to two places: The painted wood will likely be reused as part of a paper manufacturing process here in Portland, OR. Our understanding is that the paint (lead-based or no) will not end up as part of the paper product itself. The unpainted wood will be ground up and sold as garden mulch.

The temporary structural timber at the center of the room is keeping the second floor from sagging. On the left the new outside wall is framed and sheathed, and the opening where the french doors will go is partially cut open (the actual width of the door is the width of the header, visible at the top of the wall). The piles of debris on the right are chunks of plaster that covered the east inside wall.

• 3/27 :: Michael adds : Couldn't agree more about the green ceiling. Very nasty was it. Sorry mice! And 4" of head space is a lot, even with already tall ceilings.

• 3/27 :: We add : Michael is the lead framer on the project.
  

Stair Tower North Wall

Taken just before the sheathing goes on. The wide window at the top means that the structural support has to be diverted. Notice how there are several 2x6's sistered together on each side of the window rough opening.