Renovate the New House

Did a bunch of furniture shopping and learned I don’t like couch designs and the ones I do I can’t afford. Did get the idea to raise up the planned built-in bookshelf so that I can fit seating under it and make the living room have more arrangement options. The speedrunning went well, so the weekend off was well worth it.
This past weekend was spent ripping up the floor. See pictures: Got the sub-floor up in the bathroom for easy access to the utility room, which will make plumbing/electrical a bunch easier. Also got the floor up in the kitchen and knocked a couple of exploratory holes in that sub-floor to see where the foundation was sitting to make sure the planned beam doesn’t need additional support. Given it’s age/level of repair the rest of the sub-floor needs to come up so we can level the beams and put a new sub-floor down. This will keep things from creaking/bowing in the future. While we have a giant pit for a floor, the plumbing and electrical will go in. I forgot I had a wedding to attend this weekend, so am going to shift the goals back a week and after shifting some of the goals around and having to rip up more of the floor than desired. Otherwise, things keep moving and I’ll hopefully have an approximate date for kitchen cabinet by the end of the week.

Just going to keep this project open to keep the updates consolidated. New goals for the next 4 weeks and updated timeline.

Update for week 1: Have the new stairwell opening created, headers are in for the new staircase and 1 of 3 stair stringers are cut. (Messed one up). Floor joists on second floor are cut, just need to rip up flooring. Living room and office are marked for electrical outlets and new 150 amp box is waiting to get filled. Still need to do lighting layout.

Adding a couple of pictures and the two main layout ideas.

Got a second dumpster filled. Found some rot in the front porch that is going to cause another bump to timeline but overall demolition hasn’t turned up many serious problems with the place which is super nice. Have penciled in the ‘best’ spot for the staircase to go but still need to layout the run to make sure they land upstairs where I think they do.
Really only have the bathroom and the back porch ceiling left to put in the dumpster and the wiring of the living room and den can begin this week. Gonna spend the week planning those outlets/lights and narrowing down which kitchen configuration is gonna work with the moving of the staircase/bathroom doors. Lots of doodling in the notebook and staring longingly at home renovation websites in my future.
So in general, week 3 was productive and week 4 is going to look a lot like the week 3 goal which is good. Just have some thinking to do and decisions to make so things can get ordered sooner than later.

Didn’t get the dumpster changed out in time for a big weekend due to some late season blizzard shenanigans. But, got the stairwell ripped out, full dimensions of the upstairs taken, a couple hundred nails removed from the walls and pictures taken. After weekend 1 Have a couple days of putting all the dimensions into a proper layout then consulting the oracles about electrical layouts, if I want heated floors or not and making some decisions about kitchen stuff so that electrical layouts can be more finalized. Don’t forget the bathroom, gonna have to choose some pieces for that so that layout can work as well. Lastly, price out how far into the budget I am with just the items mentioned so far and that will help decide a few other options like counter tops and those heated floors.

Mid-week update with staircase options and hopefully good news on the dumpster situation. Definitely will be doing some wiring by week 4, but 100% won’t be done to the point I wanted. But 1 week delay due to weather is not bad. Especially because it’s giving me more time to think about the finished product.

Good progress this weekend, but I got tired brain and didn’t take pictures. Filled the first dumpster and demolition is about half way done. Hopefully be able to wrap that up this weekend and stay mostly on schedule. Going to have to take an extra week on the wall framing since I’ve added a staircase move to the project. It’s going to make the upstairs a little less awkward but is going to take probably 2 or 3 days by itself.

Found all kinds of fun things in the walls during demolition. Newspapers from the 1920’s, an old photograph, more baby shoes than you’d want, among other things. Pictures will be taken this week as I strip nails and wait for the next dumpster.

Ongoing planning of the kitchen layout and now the stair move needed a redo of the dimensions since there was about 3 layers of wall so we gained some space. Need to get going on the lighting/outlet layout and breaker planning to see if I need to get an electrician in to put in a new breaker. Hopefully be done with that mid-week next week. Also need to get a shopping list together for tools and framing supplies once the layouts are done. Lots to do.

Here we go. The before pictures

Took dimensions of the current kitchen and bathroom to start planning their layouts. Grabbed a few tools and PPE for the demolition next weekend as well as ordered the dumpster. Just need to get a headcount for helpers and next weekends pictures will look very different.

Current plan is to save a lot of the trim work around the doors and windows to keep that farm house feel. Also planning on keeping the pine floor in the living room and den because I like it.

Confirmed the closing date is March 5th. Start date is confirmed.
Will have the before pictures up this weekend so we can watch the destruction in real time.