Demo Continues...

So simultaneous to the foundation correction we began demo of the kitchen and bath. The bath was just a horrible 80's thing that had grown into the bedroom with it's jacuzzi tub. We're going back to the original layout but updating it to take advantage of modern materials. Our tub will have more capacity than the jacuzzi but occupy the same foot print as the original tub and be clean, sleek and 24" deep but within the narrow 60" width of the original layout.

Removing the jacuzzi tub, balcony and modified doorways. Sort of all of it.

There on the far right we uncovered the original laundry shoot which we will reinstate. 

At the same time Ben suggested removing the wall that separates the kitchen from the main room. Originally this was a full wall with a door to the main room but it was, at some point, opened halfway. We wanted to completely get rid of it but plumbing in the wall prevented that so we're going to leave one three foot section, remove the entire wall facing the main room and span that with a 4x12 beam that mimics the ceiling beams. This is a place where we will depart from the letter of mid-century to embrace the spirit of it to make the layout more open. 

The balcony on the right was an addition we're keeping. The kids love it and it's fun space to have but we're trimming it down are replacing the turned wood rail with metal cable. The light the place gets is just great.

We're getting closer. The balcony has been stripped and already it's thinner, leaner and less clunky so that's an improvement.  Next to come out is the wall in the kitchen. 

Stripping it down and getting to the good stuff.

Jacob Flory of B.D. Mack is doing a lot of the demo and some of the (critical) framing such as the removal of the kitchen wall and setting the beam. He also has a dump truck about the same year as our house so it looks like a very period renovation. 

It's a mid 50's Chevy dump truck which looks just about perfect with the house. Hmm...

Beam is set and we're ready to frame out the upstairs.

Ben is prepping the floor for our first wall. 

It might not be too easy to see here but the kitchen is now fully open to the main room in the house which effectively makes both rooms larger - win, win. 

Here's the story of our house in one beam cross section. The beams were black, then green, then white then purple. The ceilings at the top are the unmolested cedar. I will be sanding them all back to that and the beams will be painted black again.