First, (8:00am) Ray and I finished moving the wiring and safely capping off unused ones.
The rest of the crew showed up (9:00am) and we set to work building the temporary walls.
By 9:45 we were ready to remove the old wall.
At 10:00 I broke my pinky when the LVL fell over and pinned my finger between it and the sawzall.
10:15 My finger is set and taped and we are back at removing the wall.
10:30 The wall is out!
12:30 after much measuring, cutting, nailing, and then redoing the jack studs, the beam is up.
1:00 The temp walls are down and we have a great room!
(well, we have a shell of a great room anyway)

We started the morning here:

This is what it looks like with the temp walls up:

Here it is after the beam is in and the temp walls are out:

Somehow, none of the pics were without people in them.

I will take some more pics today and post them. Even though Jeff is so photogenic!

Today I got the rest of the trim and panelling removed and also decided while we had the crew and materials to widen the door way from the living room to the dining room to 6 feet. This should REALLY open things up.

By the end of the day Thursday, I should have the cabinets on the doomed wall removed, the dishwasher and fridge moved and the soffets over the remaining cabinets gone.

There is smaller stuff that has to be done beforehand as well. I have to convert the Dining room and Kitchen light switches to regular switches instead of three ways, remove the wiring for the outlets in the way and get the 46 bowfront aquarium moved to my son’s bedroom where it will stay for about a month.

As long as everyone shows up that is scheduled to (and on time Jeff!), we should get to rest next Sunday.

There are going to be 7 of my friends/family showing up to work on the wall removal, beam installation and hang drywall.

It’s amazing what you can get your buddies to do for BBQ ribs!

I promise lots of pics before/during/after.

I also took a load to the recycling center. I had no clue we had this much junk laying around.

I have promised myself that there will not be one piece of sawdust left before I start putting all back together so that’s what is on this weeks agenda… more hauling away.

Then it’s hauling stuff back in. I have nine 4×12 sheets of drywall coming and the studs for building the temporary wall. Not to mention the LVL. It’s going to get crowded on the carport really quick!

The cheesy glass and particle board stand that came with the Hitachi big screen had gotten on my nerves for the last time. I have always wanted a Mid-Century stile floating wall unit in the living room. So, two days and $120 later we have this:

It may look crooked but it’s perfectly level and plumb. I was using my buddy’s awesome camera and hadn’t gotten used to it yet. But hey, at least they aren’t the crappy pics from before!

The shelves aren’t stained yet and the drywall isn’t sanded either. I decided to put it up and test it to see if it would work before I finished everything just incase it didn’t and I had to patch the walls.

It works perfectly so it’s coming down in another week to finish sanding, prime and paint.

Now, for the next project: getting ready to remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room. The walls were covered with paneling and 4 layers of wallpaper! That had to go.

I had an engineer spec out the LVL (laminated beam) that will support the ceiling where the wall is coming down and he agreed with my calculations. It’ll take two 1-7/8″ x 11-7/8″ 16 footers sandwiched together with 2 jack studs on each end. I was expecting to pay around $500 for them but it turns out our hometown building store, Corum’s, is getting them for $174 and delivering these beasts for free.

And finally, we have picked out the flooring! (it’s about friggin’ time!). We are going with these:

The flooring is Azrock styles V-310, V-780, V951. We are going with a random pattern of 45% each black and white and 10% red. It should look marvy when done and at only $1.50 a square foot installed, it’s waaaay under budget! SCORE!

So, with spray paint and spray adhesive in hand, this is what I came up with for the file cabinet:

And this is the pencil holder:

The pencil holder is nothing more than vegetable cans covered in fabric then put on a piece of 2×4 that I beveled on the table saw and painted black.

All together I probably have $10 in all of it including the yard sale file cabinet and fabric.

ROLL TIDE!

They had a drawing for their new book Make It! Harware Store Decor.  I entered and found out today that I WON! 

I have just scanned the pdf and it looks very promising.  I will post pics of the stuff I make from it or make that was inspired by it.

Rachel had covered my office chair with Houndstooth material in honor of Bear Bryant and Bama. Roll Tide!

The plan is to cover the file cabinet with fabric as well to make it look nicer and to quite down the sheet metal noise.

I also did some long overdue thrifting this weekend and scored two end tables, a lamp and a console stereo for a grand total of $15! I will post pics soon of that haul.

It’s going to look great when done!

Here is a shot after tearing out the drywall around the fireplace:

Here is a shot after the framing (camera ran out of batteries so I will post more later):

As usual, I apologize for the horrible pictures. I reallly need to get a better camera and learn to use it properly!

I think I will have my buddy photograph stuff from now on.

The weekend of the 3rd is drywall over the fireplace. The next week will be the mudding, taping and sanding. On the weekend of the 10th….PAINT!

I think I found the colors to use they came from inspiration from this picture:

Going to use the gray on all the walls except one and use the ivory color on the last wall and the trim. I think it’s too much to use it on the ceiling so we will just kilz the ceiling and go back with ceiling white on it.

This will pave the way for the carpet in a couple months… hopefully.

BTW, we have narrowed down the carpet choices and should finish deciding after the painting is done.  Then it will take a trip to Dalton, Ga. to buy the carpet and pad.  We can drive the three hours and save hundreds on it and get to eat lunch and shop in Chattanooga while we are there.

I have just about finished the round ottoman… thank God for Gorilla Glue!

I have removed the fireplace in the living room and am getting ready to close it in permanently.

We have decided on flooring but, in the midst of the flooring decision, decided that we are going to remove the wall in between the kitchen and dining room this fall so we are on hold (again) on flooring until we finish the project there.

I will post pics of the foot stool and the fireplace project in the next day or so…keep checking back!