Remodel - Week 1

Of course the first week of the remodel would bring the return of cold weather to Wisconsin - nighttime temps were near zero and the daytime temps barely made it into the teens for the first part of the week. But Jason and his worker are from hardly stock and showed up every day, albeit later in the morning than they would have liked - waiting for the mid-day warm up (relatively speaking, of course).


Day 1:

Demo begins...

The dumpster is delivered. The old chimney is by the dumpster - the plumber on the project asked if he could have it as his blew off in a storm earlier this winter.

Day 1 - Crisis at the end of the day! Jason discovered that the family room roof trusses from the 1994 remodel were not the size that was called for on the 1994 plans - the new bedroom floor would be 2 inches higher than floor in old part of the house. Sigh.

Day 2 - The architect arrived early on the job site and he, Jason and Steve brainstormed. To correct the 1994 error would mean tearing out entire ceiling of family room and ordering new trusses - quite the expensive endeavor. The final solution is a compromise - the floor of the new bath and hallway leading into guest suite will be raised so that the entire area will have the same floor height. The transition will occur where the upstairs hallway gives onto the new guest suite hallway.

Oh well, whenever our outdoor garden projects don't go as planned, Steve and I call them "rustic" and call it a day. We shall call this "quaint" and "charming" - should anyone notice.

Day 6 - the south wall goes up...

Meanwhile, Steve is doing the inside demo...

Note the little niche (door is already removed) built into the wall between the studs...the 2nd floor was an apartment during WWII and this little bedroom was the kitchen for the upper flat. This niche was where the tenants could keep milk and food cool in the winter time:

A sample of the original WWII era wallpaper - this was behind the trim of the milk niche:

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This chimney will be demo'ed - part of the new shower will be here:

The Fireplace Project

Before we could begin our 2nd floor remodel, we needed to replace our wood burning fireplace with a vented gas model. Not only was the old fireplace inefficient, it never drew properly. Plus, the vented gas insert does not need the chimney, freeing up valuable real estate in the new guest bedroom.

Here is old fireplace bedecked for Holiday 2008:




The project begins...Santa's helper?

Finally complete!

The new insert was both wider and taller than the original wood burner so Steve had to add the plinths on the bottom of each pilaster on the mantle surround.

The original brick could not be reused and had been discontinued. We think these new ones are a good match. As they are smaller, Steve was able to put more bricks on the sides and the top which we think looks even better than the original installation.

So the fireplace project is complete. The dumpster arrives tomorrow and Steve will begin demo on the small 2nd floor office. Jason will arrive Tuesday morning along with the sunshine - the weatherman is predicting a 4-5 day stretch of sunny weather which is perfect!