Our last post was about demolition starting at the end of December – now fast forward a month to the end of January 2019. Framing is going up!
First floor
The perimeter walls have all been framed, and you can start to get a sense of the different rooms and spaces. The living room is pretty defined, with a large case opening. Our contractor has installed a steel header for the large open span between the kitchen and the informal living space. All-in-all, you can start to see the first floor floorpan coming to life.
View from inside entryway 
Living room 
Bump out on first floor 
Kitchen!
Second floor
The second floor has a temporary load-bearing wall in it that makes getting a sense of the final room sizes a little difficult. In the master bedroom, the separate sitting room is defined by the original tall french doors and a large case opening to the rest of the master (where we’re planning to put a fireplace). The master closet and bathroom aren’t framed out yet, nor are the two back bedrooms and back bathroom, so you still need a bit of imagination to see the final layout.
Entry into master, looking at sitting room 
Master bedroom (and closet) 
Look back at sitting room from main master bedroom 
Where the closet, master bath, 2nd bath, and 2nd bedroom will go. 
One bedroom on the right, one on the left 
View of third bedroom
The Basement
The basement can’t be framed out until the new concrete floor is poured, which can’t happen until the plumbing is put in – so no pretty 2x4s in the basement yet. They did put in new support columns (which is good since the whole rest of the house needs those to stay up), and poured footers below the ground rather than chunky footers sticking up to trip over.
The ground torn up in prep for installing plumbing 
Notice the flush column footers 
View looking back
When I saw all of this initial framing go up and new basement columns go in, it felt like there is still so much to do (true) AND I could suddenly imagine things going very quickly. I’ve been thinking a July move-in isn’t crazy, and I could imagine it going faster (knock on wood, spit three times, whatever avoids jinxing it) – but I’ve also seen enough HGTV to not anticipate totally smooth sailing. Either way, seeing the partition wall framing go up will really help us see individual rooms and get a sense of how the floorplans we settled on translate to real physical space. Gulp.
You should hide a time capsule in the dirt in the basement for the next renovating owners. Something quintessentially 2018… like a Hamilton soundtrack and a MAGA hat….