Progress on the main house

We had to halt work on the apartment until we get some paperwork straightened out around dividing the property into two lots. Creating a "subdivision" is complicated!

So work has shifted to the main house, and it is sooooooooooo cool.

I took some photos over there just now, but looking at them on the real screen does not do the project justice, so I am going back over there tomorrow when there's light and take more.

The kitchen has been gutted and expanded to include what once was a pass-through -- the ceiling now goes to the rafters instead of being '60s-era dropped acoustic tile. We're plotting cabinets and countertops.

Half of the wall between the kitchen and the living room has been taken out, opening the space and improving flow.

The two upstairs bedrooms are becoming one master -- the wall/closets between them have been knocked out. The floor underpinning those bedrooms has been jacked up an inch and a half -- it is noticeably less cockeyed!

Plans are underway to expand the bathroom at the end of the master beyond its 8-foot square.

On the other end of the house, the stairway that once turned a corner down into the basement has been straightened out. We lost some cabinetry in the process, but gained breathing room and safety.

And in that basement, the crazy collection of walls and closets and windows and such are all out -- it is one big space that will become the kids' bedrooms and bathrooms, my office and the laundry/utility room.

Every day is something new -- it's so interesting!

Stuff lying around the place

Part of the fun of this restoration project is finding what's here.

Like this woodstove that used to heat the party room-turned-apartment.
Like the copper light fixtures.
Like the emblem that was on the front of the kitchen sink.
Like the old clawfoot tub.
Like the kitchen cabinets.
Like the really, really good pencil sharpener that is in the strangest place.

Soon there will be walls

Work on the apartment is proceeding nicely. The floor is leveled up, the layout is mapped. We have a tub. No water yet, but so?

Cumberland Tree Service has worked some magic, too.

I see the earth move

The bulldozer was here yesterday.

Making space

In the basement of the main house, there were two partially finished rooms with no door in between them. To get from one to the other you had to go upstairs and to the other end of the house and back down.

Not anymore!

The kids' rooms will be down here, and a bathroom and the utility room and my office. (The pictures don't show where the utility room and the office will be.)

The big house

The living room in the main house had an old, acoustic-tile dropped ceiling, but based on what we could see elsewhere, we hope hope hoped that the tongue-and-groove wood went all the way to the roof peak.

And it does! After a little restructuring, there will be less truss work and a much more expansive, exposed-beam look.

 
We'll have a little shelter for unlocking the door if it's raining. And the apartment got a little love today, too.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Remember this?

Now look: