Thursday, November 4, 2010

After the house is gutted...

The house looks really different with all of the wood paneling and drywall gone. All of the walls are made of interlocking solid wood pieces (shiplap). This old-fashioned building technique adds to the overall strength of the structure.




Removing the 8 foot ceilings exposed the original 11 foot ceilings upstairs.  All of the ceilings upstairs are now 11 foot ceilings.



The old chimney was removed to make more space for a new Jack and Jill bathroom upstairs.  The chimney was no longer functional and was no longer connected to the roof from a previous remodel, so removing it did not take away any functionality.



The window in the upstairs hallway was once a door.  This shows that this house once had a second floor porch/balcony.  Before the house was raised, this was probably the front door.



The downstairs is shiplap is different from the upstairs; this again shows that the downstairs was added after upstairs.  Every room upstairs has tall ceilings now. The downstairs ceilings are still 8 feet tall, since that is the original ceiling height of when the house was raised and the first floor was added.



Here is the downstairs dining room.  Note the ceiling beam which is where the two houses were joined together.  We will turn this dining room into the new kitchen, since it is much larger than the original tiny kitchen.  The original kitchen will be turned into a laundry room.