HVAC

Heating and ventilation ductwork, compared to the labor required to install it, is pennies on the dollar. The existing ductwork in the house was so badly beat up and bent that our HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) guy decided to rip out all the old stuff for recycling instead of fuss with it. He's begun putting in the new lines, some of which will be in the same places in the home as before, and some of which will be deleted, moved, and added.

The inset photo is a box of new elbow joints.

More Windows

The North side stair tower windows are in.

Stairwell Divider

We decided against a completely open stairwell with a railing wrapping up the center. Instead, we're putting in a solid wall up to the 1.5 landing, and then sloping that part of the wall up to the second floor. From the 1.5 landing to 2nd floor landing we'll use a handrail with spindles so that the South and West light coming in can reach farther down into the stairwell and ultimately into the kitchen on the opposite side of the house. As this comes together we'll post more photos and it'll probably make a lot more sense than it does right now.

Bathroom Wall

After many calculations, measurements, re-calculations and re-measurements, we've placed the wall that will separate the kitchen from the bathroom. Working in a confined space like this, trying to get the kitchen cabinets just right while not taking too much away from the bathroom has been a juggling act and we've had about a 1" margin of error to work with. We have so little space here, in fact, that we had to turn the 2x4 studs on edge to make a thinner wall.

The jog in the wall will allow us to recess the fridge so that the front of it is flush with the cabinet fronts.

Kitchen/Bath Underbelly

The kitchen and bathroom windows are in, but we've taken the skirting off to do some maintenance underneath. This part of the house was once a porch and pantry and sits outside the main foundation of the home. The stilts on which this part sits rest on concrete blocks and closer inspection suggests that we will probably need to do some shoring up of the structure--perhaps another post or two and some poured concrete to stabilize the base. It's been our intention from the start to remove the skirting and then panel, side, and insulate this crawl space because otherwise the winter drafts blowing through it would suck the heat right through our kitchen and bathroom floors.

The shot on the left is the Northwest corner of the house. The shot on the right is the Northeast.

Here's what it looked like before we took the skirting and side-access door off.