Karen's house project

Receive notifications about remodeling updates
send an e-mail

Updated Jan. 3, 2004
Posted Aug. 14, 2003

Exploring the interior

We took advantage of the dropped beams to repeat the arches that flank the living room. Tom framed in four pairs.

roughed in peninsula

Left: The blue boxes on the left are boxes for light switches. They are mounted on the side of the closet. A shallow shelf will be built in to their left, while the closet will open toward the door to the outside. Right: The breakfast bar is framed in. The table will sit beyond it. The white pipe in front of the bar is for the kitchen sink. More on the historical record of the house's innards.

roughed in bathroom plumbing

Above: The roughed in half bath, toilet on the left and sink on the right. Right: The pantry will feature a pocket door inside the metal framing on the right.

light in soffit

Above: Canned lights are in the soffits that ring the kitchen area, right. Two windows over the counter overlook the neighbors' garbage and meters, which is why the sink won't be against that wall. Notice the duct work on the right; it is the new return for the second-floor back bedroom. For the drywall version …

duct, wires

Left: The duct in the wall of the half bath runs up to the second-floor bathroom. Once it gets to the ceiling of the first-floor half-bath, the duct jogs right (or east), then runs across the ceiling to go up the outside wall into the upstairs bathroom.

Notice the colorful array of data wires -- black, red and blue -- bringing the 21st century to the second floor of this 1920 house. The big 2x12 to the right of the wires is inset in the wall for a towel bar. There's one for the toilet paper holder, too. Who'd of thunk? Thanks, Kevin.

Above left: The new supply for the second floor runs through the first floor along the east side of the chimney. Notice how the arch is framed in so nicely alongside.

Above right: The duct runs into the linen closet that Stewart added about 10 years ago. From the linen closet, it branches into the ceilings of both bedrooms.

Since heating the second floor is easier than cooling it, we'll have the cold air -- yes, air conditioning once I buy the compressor next year -- emitting from the ceiling and naturally sinking. The fan inhaling through the floor returns will draw the heat down.

The window that overlooks the addition in the back bedroom has to be replaced with a shorter window because the roof on the addition come up too high. The new window is on order.

The back-bedroom window will replace one of the few remaining original windows, the one at the top of the stairs. This leaves only the other window over the stairs to replace. The hope is to remove the upstairs bathroom window, and add a skylight. This is part of phase 2 to be started at an undesignated point in time -- next year?