House FULL of workers!

I stopped by the house this morning to find the driveway completely full with cars and trucks!  What a delightful sight -- a house crawling with workers.  The HVAC team was there, a crew of three electricians, the plumber, and Maurice and his gang.  It was the busiest I've seen it!

Progress continues -- the third floor is now fully framed with a new bathroom, two skylight openings and a hatch for the roofdeck.  It was a bit chaotic up there so I forgot to take a photo.

The HVAC guys were starting the duct work in the bedrooms as well as installing the heating and cooling systems in the attic.

The Plumber is nearing completion of the rough plumbing and is about ready for his first inspection.

HVAC Supplies

Maurice and two of the electricians going up to the third floor

 Hot and cold water lines running up the walls!

And back in Charlestown, the packing has started.  I've got about 20 boxes packed up so far and cringe when I think about how much more needs to be done!

Saturday Update

The tree that was being removed last weekend is not completely gone.  Hopefully this week the tree guy comes and finishes the job.

Light and electrical boxes that need to be installed

What do you notice in this picture? Lights!  Electricity!!  Yeah!

This old cigarette package was found on the third floor...

As was this Millinery receipt from February 1911

I'm envisioning a time when the tools are replaced by furniture and such

  

Progress...finally!

Yeah!  Finally, the framing has begun!  It's so nice to see this bit of progress.  This photo shows Isabelle's closet.

Isabelle's bedroom is the door on the left and then the hallway leads to Cameron's room

Cameron's bedroom and bathroom

Standing in Isabelle's room with her closet to the right.  Her bathroom is straight ahead and Cameron's bathroom is behind hers (his has the orange bucket in it.) 

This is the first floor, what is marked as the Family Room on the original floor plans.  The small square window used to be in the half bathroom, which we removed.  I thought the stairs to the basement (and garage) could fit under the main staircase, but it wouldn't work there, so the stairs to downstairs are behind that kneel wall.  The half bath for the first floor is being moved to the walk-in-closet off the foyer.  This move opens the family room and also allows for a bigger bathroom.  Ideally, the space you see here will become the transition are between the kitchen and the new Family Room, which will be over the garage space.

I'm not sure what this cable and chain are being used for.  They were sitting on the front porch.

The neighbor had called a tree service to trim some branches on a tree that were interfering with his cable and phone lines.  We had them remove this sickly tree while they were here.

1921 Electrical

An old piece of paper dated November, 1921 was found behind a panel in the basement.  At that time, the entire house had only ten fuses, half of which were for laundry and bathrooms.

Third Floor

We're unsure what the third floor is ultimately going to become -- perhaps a hang-out spot for the kids, although Joe is lobbying hard for a hang-out spot for him.

Here's a short video showing that the top floor is now completely open.  If you look at the original floor plan, there used to be a large bathroom and multiple closets.  We'll add a bathroom and a spiral staircase to the roof.

Heavy Machinery

 We had a motorized lift in the yard so that the workers could remove one of the chimneys that wasn't accessible via the flat part of the roof.  When we stopped by, of course Joe wanted to take it for a ride!

This is where the chimney was coming out.  Removing it also freed up space in Isabelle's room.

View from the top and the control panel

I thought I'd use this old faucet as a clothes hook in the laundry room.

A bit more progress

Front foyer -- the wallpaper came off without ruining the walls.  They'll do a thin skim coat over the walls to fix any small cracks, but otherwise, the foyer was in decent shape. (Minus the floors, which you can see were removed).

The opening at the top of the stairs is the kids' wing.  You can see the opening is blocked off with lumber since the floor is removed. (You'd fall into the kitchen if you went in there).

Some lumber awaiting to frame bedrooms.

The original stairs to the third floor were very narrow, winding and in a closet.  These new stairs are regulation sized and won't be enclosed.  (The handrail here is temporary).  Maurice left open space under the stairs as he knew I'd want storage.  We'll either put a small door there or perhaps built-in drawers.

You can see on the other side of the stairs are new floor joists in the master bathroom.

This is the walk-in-closet in the foyer that we've decided to change to a half bathroom.  You'll see on the floor plans that the original half bath cuts into the family room.  We wanted to open that space more and also, this closet allows for a bigger bathroom.

More lumber waiting to become walls...

Support beams

Third floor -- this space used to have two closets, a bathroom and a separate room and was quite chopped up.  It's now completely open.  We'll put a bathroom in one corner and a spiral staircase to a roof deck in the other corner, leaving a larger open space as a kids hang-out space or study space.

Third floor again -- we'll add two sky lights and the hatch to the roof will be glass as well, allowing more light.

Third Floor

Ugh... no other way to describe it...

Yet another set back when we discovered the floor joists in Isabelle's room were not solid beams, but multiple shorter beams nailed together.  So, her  joists were removed.  This photo is standing on the second floor looking down into the family room.

The floor in the master bathroom was also removed.  This photo is standing in the butler's pantry looking up to the second floor.

A pile of old pipes 

And, as always, the only thing that looks nice on the property...the crocus have survived the sub-freezing temps...