Down Come the Low Ceilings

Something that always bothered us was the low ceiling (7') in the hallway.  When we took out the ceiling the joists were already there for the sheetrock.  All we had to do was move the AC duct work, which was quite a job since they were 42 years old and commercial to begin with.  The look down the hall now is not so cave like.  

The carpenter and I also raised the master.  To give it more of a spacious look.  The corners were his 'vision' and I'm cool with that.  He's an experienced carpenter who I've really come to rely upon.

Bathrooms Woes
We had to jackhammer (the neighbors loved that one!) the drain in the shower to be in the middle and we had to jackhammer a tub drain on the other side.  Yes, a tub.....you know I'm a girl who loves to soak.  The tub sits where the old hotwater closet was and goes into part of an empty space in bedroom #2.

Master Bath and Closet

Whew it's been a month since my last posting and a lot has been going on!  Mainly we are so worn out by end of night that I'm too tired to post.

Here are a few updates to Master Bedroom/Bath.  We closed the closet door in the bedroom entry and made an opening for the bathroom from the bedroom.  The only thing stopping us was the brick wall.  Which by now we had become expert at demo-ing brick walls.

Master Bedroom Bathroom Entry

That sledge hammer is coming in handy!  We bust through the master brick wall to create a new entry into bathroom. The back window gives a nice view of pool.

Wow! the Fireplace

We went back and forth as what to do with the fireplace. When we tore out the front we discovered the 1969 design. A very cool hearth ledge out of tile. One of the brick mason's pointed out that the original fireplace was a 2 sided; meaning only the back and right wall. We opted for plastering the over the brick and are working on the hearth.  It's looking good!

Fireplace Coming Along

The ceiling removal in the entry was one of those 'snowball things', but as my brother said, this will be the entrance to your house and make a statement!  The fireplace itself was a hodgepodge of brick and mortor above the old 7' ceiling line.  The cost of $4500 to 'make it like new to the new 10' height' was stretching our budget to say the least.  So we began to knock out/off the front and see exactly what we had. 

Entry Brick Wall

This weekend was spent taking down the brick wall in the entry.  Each brick was tapped out and then the motar was chiseled off.  We got down to the last six rows and then had to call it quits.  Almost there!  Notice the dust in the last picture.

Ceiling Demo

We are continuing to work on removal of low ceiling.  Today we accomplished the removal of the entry rafters and started on the den rafters.  Needed to support the ceiling as we removed this.  Check out the handy work from Hob and Ka.  They were proud of their work!!

Cool Pool

Pool is old 'motel style'.  Diving board was taken out by previous owner.  Pool goes from 3 feet to 9 feet.  Of course we haven't gotten in it yet, but we're waiting for warmer weather.  Looks like we will probably need to replaster.  The snowball effect begins!

Fireplace

We want to open the Kitchen/Den area up off the entry and to do that we had to take out part of the hearth that was seperating this area.  The fireplace backed up to an atrium in the original 1970 house.  By taking out this part of the hearth we've created another entry into den.  The flow is nice!

Laundry Room

Since the cabinet with sink was accidently taken down we opted to go ahead and take out the rest of the cabinets.  The floors were scraped and the hot water heater was removed.  This room is where we are placing the AC unit.  After the hot water heater came out we discovered a leak (after big rain other night) where it was venting to the roof.  It was seeping down the walls and had molded in spots.  So, you know what that means??  Down came the sheetrock in that room, too!

Next steps...Master Bathroom

Beginnings of Kitchen Den

The Project

The Project has lots of potential