Under Construction- Ranch to Colonial Conversion.
Part 2: Framing and Stairs
So in preparation for the deluge, I went a little wild
with dust covers- but they did in fact work well at keeping the kitchen
habitable and the furniture clean.
And here's the 'before' picture of the hall and wall of
the living room. Behind this wall is the spare room, destined to become
a dining area.
And here it is with the walls torn out! You can see the
length of the house at the moment. We hadn't originally planned to tear
out the bedroom wall as well, but as it turned out, we needed 4 more
inches exactly where that wall was located. The stairs turned out to be
a major hassle. We couldn't put in the right-angle turn we originally
conceived due to structural issues, and had to really sharpen our
pencils to fit a stair built to code in a single span. The single
stringer is tacked up to show the location and orientation of the stair.
Here, they've sealed the window openings with plastic
for the weekend, as the windows hadn't arrived yet.
And there are the windows that are now installed! All of
the rectangular windows are here but we're still waiting for the
round-top for the west end of the house.
And here's the back view with windows.
Siding begins.
More siding
The front siding is completed.
Closer shot of the back windows.
Finally they put in the stairs and break through the
floor
The cellar door clears the new staircase with inches to
spare.
At last we can go "upstairs"!
The chimney ends in the middle of the new space.
Fortunately, there was enough ventilation that we could keep running
the furnace. Weeks without hot water would not have been fun! Also
fortunately, it was warm enough that heat was no longer needed.
More upstairs shots.
On this shot, you can see the framing for the roundtop
window, which hasn't arrived yet.
I got the first view of the new window as I got home
from work.
We start to get our first idea of what the west wall
will look like from the inside.
As soon as the last window was in, the siding could be
finished.
With all the windows in, we could lay out the interior
and the contractor started the framing.
Framing around the stair opening.
Because the stair was in line with one of the front
windows, we had the contractor put in two stepped platforms over the
stairwell. This allowed more light from the front windows into the
room, and the flat spaces can be used for storage.
Opposite the stairs, we put in a big double sided closet
with access from both the library and the sewing room. This replaces
the two closets we lost downstairs when we tore out the front room.
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