Walls and Ceilings and Floors Oh My!

Everything is still moving along, even a little ahead of schedule, so that is great news!  The electricians have continued to put in all the new electrical throughout the house.  The heating/ac guys have also still been working hard getting our 3 units installed.  It is possible that by next week we will have all 3 units that sit outside in their proper place!  The framers had a huge job of framing out the basement to get it ready for drywall.  While this seems like a fairly normal job, the ceiling isn't quite level so they had to make slight adjustments all over to ensure that it will be level!  Talk about patience on their part!  It looks great!  Also the ceiling in the upstairs has been repaired and it looks fabulous!  It might sound kind of silly to be so excited about a ceiling, but they were really really sagging low and this is going to be a main bedroom in the house so to get that looking like a normal ceiling is a wonderful thing!  They have also gotten all of the cabinets out of the kitchen and it looks huge!  We will fill it up quickly with a new island, professional grade oven/range and a huge fridge and freezer.  Here are some pictures of the progress.

Here is the start of the framing.  You can see the ceiling boards in place but also a rectangular duct of sorts going in.  This is to run needed electrical lines, ac stuff, etc.  It stands out now but will blend in when the drywall is up.

Here is a picture of the wall going back up where it once was.  If you remember from the beginning there was a wall with a pantry in it for the original kitchen.  It had to come down to repair the foundation and it was a mess anyway.  We are putting the wall back as well as the pantry but changing it up a little to include an hvac unit. In this picture you are standing with your back to the front of the house in the basement living room looking to the back of the house.

 Here is another view now from the back of the house looking forward.  On the right of the picture you can see what looks like a small door opening.  This will be a door to access the hvac unit that will be walled in a the back of the closet.  On the left of the picture you can see a door opening(where the worker is on scaffolding).  This is the door that will lead into the living room. If you were standing in that doorway and turned to your right, you will be staring into the closet.  We are going to be using this closet as additional pantry space for the kitchen since we won't have a walk in pantry upstairs.  This room is going to be our home gym so we don't really need a closet but if we ever decide to convert the room to a bedroom, we will have a closet in there.

This view might make it look confusing, but it's a view into the closet, where the door will be, and you can see where the hvac will be in the back.  It will be dry walled in and so you won't see it when it's complete.  There will be floor to ceiling shelving on the left side all the way to the back and then across the back.  No hanging storage since we don't really need it.

 Here are a few shots of the upstairs ceiling.  So happy how they turned out!

 

Here is a nice view of the kitchen all emptied out.  I'm not sure when the construction of the cabinets will begin but we were very happy to see how great the floors looked when the island was removed.

 The floors on this wall were not in as good of shape as the other areas because the sink was over there and was leaking, so there is water damage.  Fortunately it's not bad enough to have to rip out and replace and because we will be placing cabinets and appliances on that wall they won't be visible anyway.

This picture might be a little confusing at first glance.  It was taken at the top of the stairs(see the railing on the left and you can barely see the window and doors from the main level in the center of the picture).  The popcorn ceiling on the right is the old ceiling and the wood at the bottom is the new dropped ceiling on the main floor.  As you can see the duct work is running through here along with some electrical stuff.  This is a tricky spot.  We are going to have to close up this gap without messing up the banister.  Just one of the fun little quirks you run in to when renovating an old space.