Joe and I had an appointment to meet the general contractor this evening for a quick walkthrough to answer a few questions that have come up along the way. While we both had our iPhones and the camera, we didn’t take any pics—we were too distracted from the sheer excitement of seeing the space framed out…

First Floor: The new staircase opening to the 2nd floor has been framed out and floor joists between 1st and 2nd floor have been secured and are solid. The powder Room is framed out. Lots and lots of structural work to brace the house since a load-bearing wall was removed. We walked through the recent updates to the kitchen plans—remove the sliding patio door, shrink the opening to a standard door and allow for more countertop area and a larger window to let more light in.

Second Floor: Wow. I haven’t been up to the 2nd and 3rd floors in a while since there haven’t been stairs. And while there are still no stairs, I braved a short ladder and climbed on up (fearfully) to the 2nd floor 10 feet up. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it was. All interior walls and almost all exterior walls are completely new and framed out. The new staircase opening to the 3rd floor has been opened up and framed out. The bathroom now has a floor again since it had to go with the load-bearing wall removal. The lower landing of the second floor has been built and the awkward elevation of the bedroom, landing and bathroom is no longer awkward—all on the same level (in the original layout, you walked up the stairs which ended in the middle of the bathroom entrance and took a step up into the bathroom… to get out of the bathroom, you took a step back down from the bathroom carefully to ensure you weren’t on a step, walked the landing and then back up a step to the back bedroom). The back bedroom has a 7’8” ceiling height but we discovered that there’s a vaulted roofline above, so we’ll raise the ceiling to match the roofline angle opening up the room much more. This changes the character of this room so much that we may consider this as the new media room and move the guest bedroom to the front of the house.

Third Floor: Again, wow. The back-half of the floor joists have been completely replaced due to the expansion of the staircase opening. (The old staircase width was 30” but code is now 36” and since the stairs moved, they need to comply to code… and it looks better. All hallways are now also 36” wide.) The front-half of the floor was lacking proper support when originally built so it will be replaced as well.

All in all, a very productive walkthrough. It’s great to see the house take shape into the vision that’s been laid out on paper with the architect. Based on the extensive demolition and framing, we’re looking at another 4 months or so of work before move in—not too bad for a place we’ll call home for a while. Off to continue finding inspiration…