Hallway Lights/switches

John got fancy and put in a two-way switch for the hallway so we can hit the lights from the main kitchen spot and from outside the master bedroom. Much more convenient then running up and down the hallway!

 Beautiful matching can lights in the hall :)

 All taped and mudded!

Tearing down the Master/Hallway Lighting

So...I took a bit of a break once I started the new job...but we're back! Still took all our pictures, but now finally getting around to posting them :)

This is the ceiling of the master bedroom. John de-humidified the room (found SO much mold once we took everything out!) and let everything dry out for a day or two. Lots and lots of bleach was used...

I thought this piece of wood was crazy. The knot had sap coming out of it? Of course I thought it was directly related to the leaky roof, but turns out it probably didn't have time to acclamate inside the house when it was cut down, and started leaking sap once it was installed.

This little corner where the white rag is is where the rats were climbing into the house. Once the room was completely cleaned out, there was a beam of light coming from that corner. It was covered immediately!

John was also working on the lighting for the hallway/kitchen. There was some experimentation with a 3-way switch...quite complicated, but now working!

Glad I got to see this thing in action...seemed so much easier than balancing the sheet rock on his head...

Building the fake wall

To fully remove the wall in the hallway, John had to build a fake wall to support the ceiling before adding the new beam. This was done two weekends ago...came home from zumba and it was already up! Some maneuving needed to happen to wedge the beam up in the ceiling, but its up! and fully open!

Installed seizmic clips-keep everything in place

Started installing lights for the kitchen/bar/hallway

And yes, I was watching Sex and the City.

Down with the Kitchen Wall!

Saturday was the spare room, and Sunday was the Kitchen. Chuck was able to come over on Sunday to help wire in the dishwasher and stove. While he was working, John and I took down the kitchen/hallway wall! Found some more interesting structural work...all things now that would NOT be up to code.

John started by tearing up the rest of the old linoleum that covered the hardwood

John moved the bookshelf out of the way...another makeshift/temporary spot.

Moved the white fridge to where a new one will be. John has a stainless steel fridge from before in the basement so for the time being, were are going to switch the white one out and put it downstairs.

 Look what we found?!? When John moved the stove away from the wall he saw the fourth/missing stove knob. Wonderful.

 And here comes the demo! I took the first couple swings...

These beams look off? Our theory is the Deans found scrap wood and thought, "this will work for a wall!". No thank you.

 Bye bye old thermostat!

NOT to code. This was how they grounded the thermostat originally.

 John thought that there may be another beam running across the ceiling (like the right side). But...there isn't. This means a "temp wall" is going up to support the roof while John puts in the beam to support the weight.

 Looks like this wall used to be...green?

John prepping to go into the crawl space. This plus a face mask, gloves, and two lights. No spider sneak attacks here! He went up to pull the original stove wire into the stairwell to connect to the new stove. Hoping hoping hoping it was long enough...they are expensive!

Once he was down, he fed the wire through the stairs, and it fit! Drilled some holes for the wired to feed through beams, and we were wired in!

More hodge-podge craftsmenship...

Old and new...

And how in timeout. We joke that the neighbors see us tow junk to the dump and get excited...then we pile more out there. Ahh, remodeling :)