Revised second floor plans

This is the revised second floor plan. The main changes are:
-moves second bath to where the walk-in-closet for the master was
-changes the front so that both bedrooms have equal access to the porch/balcony
-makes the back half of the house the master suite which allows for a larger master bath
-makes the master bedroom larger so it is now the largest bedroom

The square footage totals are approximate and are for the interior of each room. I figured them using an Adobe Acrobat tool and I am not confident that the scale I used is accurate as the total is a lot less than what the actual square footage is supposed to be.

The blue box is the size of the mattress/bed I will have in the master bedroom (a king). I put that in so I could see how big it is relative to the bed. You can't really tell these things when there is demo junk laying around everywhere.

Dirty, dirty, dirty...

The ceiling on the second floor was demolished yesterday leaving piles of loose insulation covering the floors. The crew cleared a pathway so they could get across the second bedroom. I am sure this had to be one of the dirtier days of demo with the insulation falling out everytime a part of the ceiling was pulled down.

Outside is further along

The refuse in the backyard has been cleaned up and additional parts of the foundations of the additions have been removed. They also did some work on the bathroom addition and you can now see where the window that was covered by the first floor bathroom is being uncovered.

Second floor, same as the first...

As you can see from the photos I have posted this evening, the demo of the second floor is well underway at this time. I also got draft revised plans for the second floor (moving the "guest" bathroom onto the west wall). Still haven't figure out how the master bath/master closet will be configured. It helped a bit to go stand in the space although with the walls to the old bathroom still up and some of the cabinets still in the old kitchen it wasn't that realistic.

Front/north wall of master bedroom (Before & during)

Second floor demo - looking into the old kitchen (Before & during)

Before and during 3

Before and during 2

Before and during (since it isn't "after" yet)

Uncovering details

When the plaster and lathe was removed from the interior and exterior walls of the first floor we discovered two windows that were covered over when the additions were built. The two photos with the aqua colored plaster are of the exterior/back of the first floor - all that you can really see of the window is the arched bricks peaking out in the upper corner. There are similiar arched bricks over the doors which were probably for a door in the original house. The photo where can see lathe was taken from the southeast corner of the new kitchen - there is a brick arch at the top and the window opening is mostly hollow. This would have opened into the old first floor bathroom. We are planning to renovate both of the windows so the kitchen will not have three windows plus the door. The exception is that the window in the back will be higher than it was originally to accomodate the kitchen counters.

Storm damage

These don't really have anything to do with the renovation but I thought I would post them. Alone they don't seem that bad but every street and all the trees looked like this after the storm.

Progress

Here are some photos of the house tonight around 6:00. The demo of the first floor interior and the two exterior additions is progressing along nicely. The crew was able to get a lot done even with the delays caused by the storms of last week.

Inside and out

The bathroom addition is well on its way to being removed and work is progressing on the inside as well. The contractor, architect and I are meeting at the house Friday morning to discuss finalizing the plans. If the demo continues to go as planned almost all of the demo (inside and out) will be done by then. Yippie!

Look - no sunrooms!

Even more progress today. The walls of the sunrooms are completely down. The upper wall has had the plaster stripped off of it while the lower wall still has it (the greenish stuff). I don't know if you can get enough detail in this photo but the brick work that is being uncovered is pretty rough so it will need major tuckpointing. It should (but doesn't) match the color of the strip that runs down the center of the house and on the left side (the right half where it is dark is the fake shingle like stuff). You can also see that the demo has started on the "bathroom addition" as the upper window has been removed. I did not get up there to see what else might have been done. I was still in my suit and it was H O T so I didn't hang around that long tonight.

The contractor and I met with the dispursing agent today also. The process is going to be a lot less complicated than we feared. That makes me very happy. Also, everything goes through me so I will know exactly what is being spent. That makes me even happier. The contractor also stated today the planned end date - October but no later than November is what she said. That makes me the happiest. Even if the project runs over by a month it will be done in six months.

Finally, on day 3 of the construction the first dumpster was hauled away.

Next part to rip off

The sunrooms are getting close to being a thing of the past which means the next part of the house to be taken off is the other addition. If you look at the second floor, that addition is basically the width of the bathroom on each floor. It is also the width of the hole that exists in the back brick wall of the house on both floors. Plus the door and window on each floor. My current thinking is to install windows approximately the size of the holes of the bathrooms - maybe a foot or so will be added on the bottom so the window is resting directly on the floor. Both doors will be at least partially filed in - on the first floor the wall for the new bathroom will be approximately in the middle of the door opening.

On Monday we have a meeting with the disbursing agent to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding how people will get paid. I think later in the week we will need to meet with the architect to discuss moving the plans a little closer to final. If nothing else we need to finalize what is happening with the openings in the back wall...

Another report

I went over to the house this morning - before it got really hot - to see what had been done inside on Friday afternoon. The main thing is that there are "new" stairs to the basement. The old stairs previously went the other direction from the other side of the opening to the basement (so if both stairs were there, a "X" would be formed). I think what they did was disassemble the old stairs and reverse them after they took down the wall/created the new opening to the basement (where the camera is looking down used to not be open). They also took down the old plaster in the general vicinity.

For those who have visited the house, if you are standing right outside the first floor bathroom and are facing the front of the house, there used to be an alcove of sorts across the "hall" between the old kitchen and the old bedroom. Now if you walk into the alcove and turn right, you would be staring downstairs. Eventually the current alcove opening will become a door so there is a sort of closet/landing which will be used to store brooms, mops, etc.

More progress

The top photo is of the giant construction dumpster that is now lodged in my garage. And it isn't one of those half-sized dumpsters - its the real deal. Fortunately I have a longer than normal garage. As you can also see, the guys cleaned up the backyard - I guess they did this instead of taking the walls of the sunroom down. I suspect the neighbors are happy the yard is cleaned up so that is probably a good thing. However, the two floors and the ceiling are now gone which is why you can see up to the sky in the other photo.
Over the lunch hour I dropped by and they were also working inside on what will become the new stairs to the basement (so the hinged stair will not be needed). After work (which is when I took these photos) I did not go inside so I don't know what else might have been done inside.
Although you can't see it in the photo, the dumpster is almost half full already. I do wonder how many dumpsters this project will go through - when my brother demolished part of his house for an addition the part removed was simply pulled off to an old silage pit on the property. It would have been nice if the same could have been done here…

Demo has started

The dumpster hasn't been delivered yet but the demo has started. The above photo shows that they are tearing the sunporch apart before it is taken off the house. Since the neighbor's house is so close and we aren't sure what the wall it is attached to is like it, can't just be ripped off. Plus they are supposed to salvage some portion of the hard wood floors to use in other parts of the house.

Finally... something to report

The latest is that the demolition permit was granted by the city today and the dumpster is supposed to arrive tomorrow. Some progress...