Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Demolition Begins

After lots of brainstorming and scribbling with Steve's architect older brother (SO nice to have that free expertise in the family!) over Christmas break, we decided to begin remodeling the second level of our house. Currently, we don't use the upstairs at all except for storage; it consists of a long, narrow, relatively unusable space we like to call "the tunnel" (see photo: the previous owners billed this as a "third bedroom"...mmm-hmm) as well as a whole other unfinished area. The unfinished part already has floorboards and two windows (that open! as in, aren't painted shut! yippee!), so it could easily be made into more living space.

The plan is to put a second bathroom upstairs (right now we only have one in the house, which is also in need of an overhaul, but it'd be nice to have a working toilet and shower in the house before we tear out the current ones) and add two bedrooms. Because of the awkward placement of the stairs, this will also involve moving the staircase north about two feet, adding three winding steps at the top, opening the stairs into the dining room instead of the hallway...oh, and we decided to knock out the wall in the hallway so it's an open staircase. Hey, I'm a Kannel now...Kannel remodeling projects are NEVER simple :)

My fabulous handyman of a husband decided there was no better time to start than last Saturday, so he picked up a hammer and a crowbar and went to work on his favorite part: demolition. Here's how it looked Saturday afternoon...

Since this picture was taken, Steve has moved/added support beams for the roof and is now in the process of building a wall down the middle of the unfinished part (think: directly in the center of this picture, where you see a post now) to divide the two new rooms. This man is talented...AND he looks hot in a tool belt ;)

More pictures to come. This project will give me blog material for the better part of 2007, at minimum.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree, it's nice to have a talented husband who also looks good in a tool belt.

That project looks cool. I'm sure it'll take some creative thinking with the roof like that. I could imagine some pretty neat spaces though, created up there.

Kat Coble said...

I'm definitely interested in following this along. It looks like it will be alternately fun and aggravating. ;-p

Bethany said...

What a fun project to do. And what a great space. We have a two story 1924 detached garage that looks like a little snow white cottage. I think we are going to start work on the second level and turn it into a bed and bath to rent. That will be our next major project. So fun huh!! Can't wait to follow yours.

The Chinlund Family said...

Wow! What a great project! I look forward to following the progress! BTW, thank you so much for the Christmas card-- I didn't have your address but am glad I do now :) I loved the picture!