Progress!

We closed on our new house a little more than two weeks ago and a lot of progress and demo work has been done already!  Here are some before and current shots of the kitchen, living room and bonus room.  All furnishings in the before photos were the previous owner's, photos taken before closing.  

Some of the demo work completed or in progress right now includes:  

• Removing all flooring in the living room/kitchen/sitting area and bonus room, half bath and laundry room
• Removing the brick plantar at the front door
• Replacing subflooring in the living room/kitchen/sitting area and repairing/reinforcing floor joists
• Scraping textured ceilings
• Removing the wall dividing the living room/kitchen/sitting area
• Removing the wall enclosing the half bath and laundry room in the bonus room
• Demolition of the existing kitchen, bath and laundry
• Demolition of the fireplace wall and chimney
• Demolition of the current patio area to make way for the addition

 Construction work will include:

• Laying hardwoods throughout the original house in all areas where the flooring was removed
• Building a new fireplace in the former sitting area 
• Old kitchen area becomes a dining room adjacent to a new sitting room and fireplace
• An entry way/drop-off area will be built in at the existing back door
• A half-bath will be constructed within the bonus room, accessible from the living/dining/kitchen, etc
• The existing back exterior wall will be pushed out to make way for an addition with a new kitchen, laundry room, hallway and master suite

Bonus Room Before:

Bonus room view into laundry - before

Bonus room view into half bath - before

Half bath in bonus room - before

Laundry room in bonus Room - before

Bonus room view into half bath - before

Bonus Room Now:

Wall enclosing the half bath and laundry room is gone! Half bath is demoed.  The layers of flooring have also been removed.

Laundry Room has been demoed and plumbing will be capped off.  Windows are exposed that were previously behind the wall!

The bonus room is now a staging area for all demoed appliances, cabinetry, fixtures, etc. (Hi, Aunt Nancy!)

Kitchen and Living Room Before:

Front door entry into living room - before

View into living room and plantar - before

Living room before

View of kitchen from fireplace wall before (hello Bill, home inspector extraordinaire!)

Diagonal fireplace wall - before (and Mary & Phil!)

Kitchen and Living Room Now:

Wall is coming down - it's now completely gone (pics to come) and no support beam will be needed!

Many, many layers of flooring were removed, along with wainscoting.  The heavy brick fireplace wall and chimney contributed to our need to replace the subflooring with 3/4" subfloor and reinforcing the joists below.

View from living room into former kitchen, which is demoed.  The exterior wall is the next to go!  The addition will be in this area, including the new kitchen, laundry, hallway and master suite.

Diagonal fireplace wall is gone!  Chimney is the next to go.  So much brick!

Like any home renovation or addition project, we'll run into challenges we didn't foresee.  We've had a few good news/bad news situations arise already, but it all balances out for the most part.  Great news was that we didn't need a support beam where the wall used to be diving the living room and old kitchen.  Not so great news was the need to replace the subflooring and work on the joists.  The big question mark in that area of the house was the diagonal fireplace wall.  We knew the wall had to go because we need to be able to square off the room and be able to build the addition and hallway to the master suite from that area.  What we didn't know was what we'd find behind the wall!  We didn't expect the massive, crazy chimney but that's what we got.  We planned on keeping the chimney and flute but in the end we'll demo what was there and build a new fireplace.

It's great to see things happening, and a little overwhelming to know how much is going to happen over the next few months.  Looking forward to sharing more as we continue!