A Quick Update

The walls are down and beams are up... Finally. Here's how it went down in a nutshell:

On Friday we took a steel pipe, that El's brother was able to find us, to a metal shop in Isabel, LA. They cut the pipe to size and made a 8" x 8" steel plate to weld to the bottom. We brought a pre-fabricated plate to attach the beams to the column and that was welded on the top. 

Cutting the pipe.

The next morning we started early on removing the rest of the wiring and switches from the wall and built two temporary walls, since the wall we're removing is carrying the load of two separate parts of the house.

Nine 2x6's attached to the ceiling joists held the
ceiling over the living room.

A second wall in the foyer was built to
carry the load of the other side of the house.

With both walls up, we were able to install the first beam. We finished at midnight - the temp walls would be taken down the next day...

One wall down; one to go.

 I have to admit, I didn't help much building the second wall. I was busy removing the carpet from the bedrooms and also digging a trench from the kitchen wall to where the island is going. I got about 9" before passing that job on to El's mom, who drilled about 800 holes in the concrete so that it will be easier for me to break up with the compression hammer. We also decided to relocate the floor outlet about 4.5 feet closer to the kitchen... yay more concreate breaking.

The second wall only had to be supported on one
side.

Going, going, gone...

Success! One weekend and both walls are down. The only thing that needs to be removed now are those two temporary studs that sit between the foyer and the dining room, next to the column/post. We'll actually support that load with a short beam running above the ceiling, so the only thing hanging below the ceiling line will be that one long beam pictured above. I'm really excited about working more in the attic where it's 120 degrees... 

I'm ready for this project to be over. We're almost done. We just need to finish breaking the slab for the electric, finish the plumbing and electric in the kitchen, sand the door trim in the whole house, hang, tape and float sheetrock, paint, install baseboards, install new floors, install moulding, install the cabinets and countertops, put in the new exhaust for the range hood, remove the old chimney from the roof and when that's all finally done, pack all of our stuff and move into the house and that's it.

A Bunch of Messy Projects

It's been a while since I've updated and a lot has been going on, although it doesn't look like we've done much. Last week we were able to pull the fireplace out, which came out faster than I thought but I was not prepared for how dirty of a job it was. I wish I would have remembered to get pictures of the insulation, soot and baby bird skeletons that got stuck in the vacuum cleaner hose. But we got the job done and that's what counted. Moving the fireplace out of the way definitely opened the space up more and gave us a clearer picture of what it's going to look like when it's done.

The only issue we have now is what to do with the chimney stack that's still going through the roof. We decided that the best idea was to hang a Home Depot bucket from the end of it to make El and her mom think we were doing a half as job - which was funny to us; but not to them. 

It's still there. It's still funny.

We didn't finish doing that until almost midnight, so when I got home looking like I did of course El had to get a picture for us to remember. I'm tired.

By the way, if anyone wants a fireplace let me know. I'll give it away if you want it... since apparently Craigslist does not.

With the fireplace out of the way (or at least relocated to the back yard) we were able to install new 2 x 12 beams that span the length of the living room from the front to back. Getting this in took another night and it allowed us to remove almost all of the wall that previously separated the living room and kitchen.

The next messy task at hand was the floors. We finally got the tile up in the living room, hallway and kitchen area. It was a grueling task that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It was dusty and hot and horrible in every way and it was the worst part of the entire project.... until we had to remove the tile thinset from the concrete. 

We rented a concrete grinder from the Depot. This awesome tool takes that stubborn and impossible residue that tile leaves behind and magically turns it into tiny airborne dust particles that fill the room, along with every crack and crevice of your home, your nose and lungs, your eyes, your hair... EVERYTHING. It's awful.

To help minimize the dust the suggestion was to get a couple of box fans and place them in windows or doors to suck the dust out. Also, they suggested that we lightly spray the concrete with a little bit of water to keep the dust from getting to be too much. There's also a hose where you can hook up a shop-vac to help vacuum up the dust before it goes airborne. We took all of these very helpful suggestions and here was the result:

Here's the little bastard that caused
this mess.

We started grinding around 8pm on a Wednesday and by midnight we had only gotten about half way through. It was too much so we called it a night and reconvened early on Thursday morning to spend our July 4th in the dusty mist of hell.... that was until "the idea". 

The father-in-law brought his own shop-vac, about twice as big as the one we're using. We were able to take the filter out and get the hose from the old shop-vac and hook it up to the grinder. We connected another hose to the blower part and blew all of that crap directly into the fan that pushed the dust out into the air and onto neighbor's cars and windows and roofs for miles and miles. I wouldn't be surprised if they saw this stuff on weather radars. At one point the wind was such that when we blew it out of the house it went up and over the house and came back down through the front door. Neighbors drove by slow because they thought the place was on fire... I won't be shocked when we don't get any "welcome to the neighborhood" pies. 

Oh well, who cares, we were out of dust hell... until I realized that the vacuum we were using had an electrical short in the hose. This was an easy problem to diagnose. Take notes here... The way you can tell when your vacuum cleaner has an electrical short is this: While you're using the shop-vac, gently rub your hand along the hose portion, typically near the end. If you feel a slight tingle in one spot, immediately take your hand and grab that spot. You'll then feel a jolt run through your hand and up your arm. You'll also hear yourself scream like a little bitch, while throwing the hose across the room as far as you can. That's how I did it anyway. 

I didn't get any pictures of that either. I know, I suck at this blogging thing.

Speaking of taking up floors, we also had to remove the wood floors that previously covered the dining room and foyer. Remember this picture?

Here's the dining room. The floors are a beautiful tongue and groove white oak that were relatively easy to pull up since they were nailed down onto a sub floor. Glue down floors would have been a lot harder to pull up, so we were fortunate.

For me it was almost heartbreaking to pull these up and throw them away. El, on the other hand, had no problem at all.

Here's a before and after pic... although it doesn't look quite as sad since the sub floor is almost the same color as the white oak. 

After we got this done both me and my father in law got strep throat and that's set us back about five days... but not before he built the island frame. I kinda helped.

Somewhere in there we also got an alarm system installed, purchased all of our appliances for the kitchen, picked a cabinet maker/designer, ordered the wood flooring, had a gas line installed along with some other stuff that I know I'm forgetting. More to come!