THE TIMELINE Year One 2006-2007 October 2006 The place was a bit of a mess, filled with wood shavings in the attic, and lots of construction "materials" in the basement and the main floor. As you can see, the basement is not what you would call pleasant. In fact, beneath the treated plywood lurked all the signs of a failing foundation - cracks in every direction, unsightly bulges, and dampness. And so, October was spent taking everything out of the basement, the attic (including all the lath and plaster on the second floor ceiling), and various bits of salvaged lumber left by the previous owner. I felt bad about the lumber, but I didn't know what to do with it, and I had nowhere to store it. If I had to do it over, not trashing the lumber might have been one of the few things I did differently the next time. At the end of it all, I filled two 30 yard bins to the top. And then it was on to addressing structural issues. November 2006This is a picture of the later stages of the process of making a steel beam sandwich of an existing built-up 2 x 10 beam that the engineer deemed unsatisfactory. The span for the beam is half the length of the house (about 16 feet), and it carries the load for the upper two floors, so it needed to be a bit beefier. And now it is. Also in November, I doubled up the main floor joists, which had been 2 x 8 fir on 24 inch centers. Oddly enough, the second floor joists were on 16 inch centers, so it seems like someone might have had the plans upside down when they were building the place. Oh, well, it's all better now, and they're nice and solid. December 2006 In stripping everything out of the basement, it became clear that the old water service was a lead pipe. You'd think they would have known better in 1920, but anyway, I figured it should be replaced. At the same time, it made sense to replace the sewer line. As it turned out, the sewer line was clay pipe, prone to infiltration by roots and such. Now, both are brand new. Also in December, I installed a central beam on the second floor to replace existing load bearing walls roughly 10 feet from each side. It really opened things up on the second floor, so much so that I was briefly tempted with leaving it that way. The light was really quite lovely. Still, being practical, I finished up with the beam and moved on to framing once January rolled around. January 2007 to April 2007There was lots of framing to be done to make new openings for windows, as well as to re-configure the layout of the second floor. On the main floor, I built a second 2 x 4 wall up against the original 2 x 4 framing of the house. The house had been balloon-framed, which means that the studs were about 18 feet long and ran from the foundation up to the top plate, upon which the attic joists and rafters rested. The new wall gives support to the second floor joists, which had been installed by being rested on a 1 x 4 ledger board fitted into a notch in the stud and then getting spiked to the stud. It worked, but isn't considered acceptable by today's standards. As an added bonus, the wall is now about 8 inches thick, which gives lots of room for insulation and running wire. To see what happens next, go to Page 2, or jump to Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, or Page 6. |
