Renovation Update: Progress and some Problems

So - in our second week on the project - the team made a lot of progress, though it's mostly less visible than the huge progress last week with demo.

Framing - 
The last of the framing was finished. The entire long wall in the kitchen is fully framed now - so it will be one level when cabinets go back up.

kitchen wall framed and even

Upstairs, they did some framing and reframing. The two skylights are fully boxed in with the temporary support beams removed. The closet configuration got finalized with the old doorway getting closed over, and a new doorway framed for the linen closet. There was also some reframing and shuffling, as the vanity wall was cut and reframed to fit two medicine cabinets. They had framed a side wall for our shower, but we wanted a full glass pane, so they removed it a framed a base. We're reusing the pocket door we found in the kitchen upstairs in the new closet, so the pocket door frame went in. Also, we're taking the transom window that was in the bedroom door and moving it over to the new bathroom doorway, so they reframed a hole for it to go.

one of the skylights all framed out

kitchen pocket door moves upstairs to the new closet

bathroom door ready for a transom

vanity wall getting reframed for medicine cabinets

old door to the bedroom framed over

Electrical and Plumbing - 
Just as the framing was finishing up, lots of holes were put in it for the new electrical and plumbing lines. For the most part, all the electrical and plumbing lines are now roughed in, and will be finished up later.

water lines for the new shower

lots of electrical going into the kitchen ceiling

water lines and electrical in the kitchen

Shopping - 
For the contractor to know where to rough in all the plumbing and finish the framing, he needed us to finalize a lot of decisions. We had to finally settle the cabinet layout, which involved moving the microwave and switching around a couple things. We needed to pick shower doors so that they could frame the base. Then, we needed to order faucets and lights so they could get the shower valve in the wall, and medicine cabinets and the bathroom vanity so the framing and electrical would be in the right places. So in a whirlwind of 24 hours or so - we made lots of quick decisions and spent several thousand dollars online. This weekend we'll pick up the few remaining things, and we should be done with all the shopping. I'm hoping that I've been thinking about this project for long enough that these decisions were already pretty much decided and won't be regrets in the future, but of course it would have been nice to have a bit more time to shop around.

One Big Problem - 
Things were moving along quickly, so quickly that I should've been more suspicious. Of course - there had to be bad news coming. Turns out - as they started drilling holes for the toilet, they realized that the brick wall was bulging, and seemed to be pulling away from the house. They removed some of the sheetrock in the mudroom to try to find the problem - which may be caused by a bad beam that isn't really supporting the bricks above. Best case scenario - we can replace the beam, but worst case scenario we may need to replace a bunch of the exterior brick that supports the sleeping porch floor. I'm reaching out to structural engineers to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, not much more work can be done until we know what the issue is - so now we wait and I try not to obsess about the worst possible outcomes.

tearing up the mudroom to try to see the problem

Another Problem - 
In order to move our stove to the new location, they needed to turn off the gas to the house. When they were done and turned the gas back on, they were unable to access our water heater and boiler to make sure they could relight. The key to the utility room, which is located within our tenant's unit, wasn't working on the door. Sadly, after one cold shower, we realized there was no hot water in the house and decided to break in - damaging the door in the process. So now we have more unplanned repairs to make, in addition to a tenant who's probably not happy with us right now.

Piling On- 
On top of all of this - Spouso happened to be out of town this week on a work trip. My mom came to help out (thanks mom!) which was great, but also meant I got displaced to the couch. Between sleeping poorly, eating very poorly, all the dust, and all the stress of these quick decisions and looming problems - I got sick. I was knocked out for about 48 hours with a miserable cold that I'm just starting to beat back. I keep reminding myself that this is temporary, but I am really ready to get my house back. I am really hoping that things turn around soon - hopefully there won't be more problems, these ones can get fixed quickly and cheaply, and we can start putting the house back together.

So other than the big problem which needs to be addressed, I think we're ready to start closing in walls and floors. I'm hoping this is going to start feeling more like a house again shortly.