This week’s visit to the house was a quick one and I was accompanied by my contractor—a good thing as he helped me understand what was happening. Remember the red brick wall that I saw when visiting last week? The process to remove it has begun. The structure that houses the kitchen, breakfast area, 2nd floor back bedroom and bathroom was added onto the original house. The brick wall inside the house was the old exterior of the original house and rather than remove it when the addition was done, they left it in place and now it’s my issue. But a necessary issue to open up the first floor to the kitchen/breakfast area space. Removing the wall means more than just that wall. It holds the weight of the roof above. But my contractor is on it and feels great about what needs to happen and the work so far.

Other than rubble everywhere, these look the same. But what you can barely see is that the brick wall of the back bedroom (green and red box) has come down. Then the first floor portion can come down, followed by the wall running perpendicular to it—the one you see in these shots. Support beams will be put in place and everything will be just like new.

With the staircase removed, there really isn’t an easy way to get up. So I relied on my contractor to provide an update on the 3rd floor: all floor boards have been removed, walls are down to the studs and the ceiling is fully off exposing the roof trusses. I really wanted to take a look so the ladder went up and I climbed to the lower portion of the second floor, but once it came to going to the upper portion of the second floor I was done. I don’t know about you, but I’m not keen on waking across the edges of ladder rungs. I’ll have to wait to see the third floor once stairs are roughed in.

Left: Looking down from the back bedroom after climbing up. That’s the ladder that went to the upper portion of the second floor that I opted not to use. Center: Inside the back bedroom. Right: First floor. This brick wall is next to come down and there will be a walkway into the kitchen/breakfast area.

We’re going to save the good bricks to build some planters in the back patio area. Looks like there will be enough.