Bright and Open

There is nothing like a project with major impact to get you out of a renovation funk.

As promised, I am feeling a lot better about things today. Back to business as usual. Today there was huge progress on two fronts:

1. 3 out of 4 openings are beamed! We couldn't do the fourth one because the chimney is still in the way, but that one will be a piece of cake.

2. The old hot water tank was disconnected today and we are officially running on the NEW SYSTEM! I had a shower with just a touch of hot water to cut the cold a little, and it was pretty good. The heat guys still aren't 100% done - they will be back Monday or Tuesday to finish up their job, but now that the hot water is disconnected, we can adios the chimney.



And now for pictures!

One of our 'small' jobs yesterday was to frame in this window, since it will be covered with upper cabinets in the near future. We figured it was ok to lose one window, considering there are 35 in the house + one patio door coming soon.

 However, it is amazing how much darker this area looks now. After it was all done, Jake said 'You were right - all wood would have been too much in here.' Further support for the two-tone kitchen!

Sometimes bright ideas aren't so bright. I have spoken before about how well pizza works on the bbq...however we learned here that a tortilla will not substitute for crust in a pinch. Perhaps the messiest pizza ever. Still delicious, though.

This was the view from the front door this morning, with flash.

 This morning it was very dark in our house - no sun and no electricity (it was ok with us because that meant rain which meant cooler temps). If you squint, you can see the supplies necessary for taking down walls and putting up beams. Actually, they aren't 'necessary' so much as 'incredibly handy'. 

 Had to get out the headlamps to do some accurate measuring for beams! What has been hypothetical for so long became a reality today. Cold, hard numbers.

 In our enthusiasm for measuring, we broke the best tape-measure, which I had previously scalded on the stove. Oops!

 I set up the timer on the camera for this shot (and 9 others in a sequence :)). I was determined to get pictures of me doing work today! This is in our garage, which is full-to-bursting. You may notice the canoe on the left there. It is full of camping and renovation supplies.

 Further improving my nailing skills. It is exhausting on the forearm.

 So occasionally I switched to my right hand. That is a big stack of beams I'm sitting on: two 9 foot beams and one 6 footer.

 When you do work like this you need to support the roof before the beam goes in (obviously). Often that means building a temporary 'pony wall' out of 2x4's. In our case it just meant adjusting some poles with an aluminum I beam. Super-handy. Took about 5 minutes to set up, and 5 minutes to take down.

 Jake and Dean hard at work, sweat dripping everywhere.

And this is the view from the front door as of now! (Except Jake has tidied it up since this picture was taken). Doesn't that look incredible!? Feels so much bigger and brighter. You may notice that the windows at the back on the left are now in sideways - when the patio door arrives they will be taken out and that whole will be cut the same size as the beam, but for now we still need light and to plug the hole with something, so there you have it.

I don't know that I can over-state how amazing this change is. So much of the work we have been doing up till now won't be seen by anyone, ever. People will come over and never have a clue that there are pipes running under the floor to heat the house, or that the walls are fully insulated and re-wired. They won't know how many little things we had to do to make it right. THIS, however, this is big impact. The house already feels so much bigger. The original doorways into the living room and dining room look comically small now. It blows my mind that this HUGE piece of the renovation took 1 day (well, plus part of a day to do the last opening into the sunroom). So many other tasks that don't have the 'wow' factor have taken longer.

I am allowing myself to dream of when this will be drywalled - light and bright and airy. So incredible!