Monday, April 21, 2014

Floors Down, Framing Up

So, where are we? 



Well, we now plywood covering the floors pretty much throughout, the downstairs bathroom has finally been ripped out (good riddance!) the old brass pipes running from the cellar have been replaced with shiny new copper, the old cloth covered wiring has been cleared out and updated in the cellar, we have 2x4's studs up framing out the master bath and all the closets upstairs and the office and finally, we made the decision not to move the column of pipes at the bottom of stairs. 

Office
Master Bath
This last one had us "umming and arring" for many many days but ultimately we came to the conclusion that it was an awful lot of money and way too much risk of disruption for our upstairs neighbours = big headaches for us!


Shiny new copper pipes


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

To Move or Not to Move the Column of Pipes?

This decision has us in a real conundrum. When we opened up the walls we discovered a collection of pipes running through both our floors from the cellar to the apartment above. The pipes consist of a waste line, a steam pipe and several water risers. The problem is that they run through the middle of the downstairs space, like, right in the middle. (Sorry about the terrible quality photo).

They are located near what will be the bottom of the stairs between the living and dining space. We have had a quote from the plumber to relocate them but it is, unsurprisingly, very expensive. We are also very concerned about  the impact moving them will have on our neighbours who already have had their fair share of issues to deal with due to our construction. These pipes feed their space so it would involve shutting off their water again which caused several issues the first time we had to do this, and I have concerns that relocating the steam pipe may lead to the dreaded tick tick ticking (or worse, banging) of the steam heat which we don't currently get.

Whilst it would be lovely to be rid of these and completely open the space, there are also advantages to keeping them. Not just the saving in money but if we enclose them in a column and integrate this with the bottom of the stairs it acts as nice divide between the living and dining space whilst still keeping the area open plan. We have a lot of thinking to do!

Friday, April 4, 2014

What's Under Those Floor Boards?

A awful lot of dirt and dust and some very old crumbly cement type substance, all of which is happily now far far away. Today, it was pretty challenging walking around due to there being nothing but joists separating our top and bottom floor and the cellar below. Next job is laying down temporary plywood floors. Unfortunately, we also found about 4 rotten beams that will need replacing and a few scary places where there just aren't any support beams and so will need filling in.

Parlour level floor

Looking through the floors