House Update: We now have a (sub)floor!

I've been meaning to post these for awhile, but just haven't made the time to sort through the hundreds of photos I have to try to give you an idea of the progression of the project. But, today is DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, so I'm linkin' up!

We were out working on the house for three weeks in August and are glad to say we're finally at the point where we can start putting things back together instead of tearing them apart.

On the way out, we stopped at a Dairy Queen to enjoy yummy blizzards and to give hubby an opportunity to fix the trailer brakes that got severed on the road.

We were very pleased when we went out to the yard the first morning we were there and discovered 10' worth of gorgeous black raspberry bushes. I picked a few to put on top of pound cake and they were so yummy! I'm very glad I picked them when I did, though, because the next day our next door neighbor had a worker trimming trees in their backyard and she decided to hop on our side of the fence and trim the raspberry bushes back a foot from the fence and chopped them in half! We were so mad! Hopefully they'll recover from the shock and grow again next year.

My hubby is so handy. This was just one of the many roles he performed while there - removing part of the terrazzo stone hearth around the fireplace. He also played the role of pipe remover, mason, electrician, gardener and carpenter to name a few.

My main jobs right now consist of "clean up crew", "nail puller", "floor plan sketcher", or "cook". Guess we all have to play our role in order to get anything done, though.

Our dear friends Luke & Melissa came by for a couple days to help us out. Melissa and I were great supervisors! And, she LOVES to clean, organize, and paint so I'll definitely be having her over more often!

Luke was a HUGE help to hubby with removing the subfloor in the kitchen. We had to remove it all in order to level the joists so our new tile floor doesn't crack when we lay it down.

We also had to demo the future media room that is located directly above the kitchen. We did this now so that junk wouldn't be falling through the ceiling onto the finished kitchen. Here's what part of the room looked like when we were first looking at the house:

Part way through the demo. Still need to remove the bathroom. We have four others on this level so I think we can do without one in here! This area used to be the maid's quarters. There were three rooms, a bathroom and a hallway all in this one spot! If you look close you can kinda see where the walls would have been in the floor.

Here is where it stands for now. This past week hubby was back there working on fixing the joists that had huge chunks cut out of them for the bathroom plumbing and laying down new subfloor in that area.

This is the other half of the room before it was demolished. This picture gives you a better idea of where the three maid's bedrooms were (where the floor boards change color). Too bad those maids don't come with the house!

In the process of being demoed. This wall will hold the screen and electronic equipment, as well as the 2nd floor stop for the dumbwaiter.

All ready for insulation and drywall. Just have to finish moving the wires.

Here are some photos of the kitchen demo process to give you an idea of how far we've come. Sometimes it feels like it is taking forever, but when we look at these, we're reminded of how much work it actually entails. It's a lot more involved than the 30 minute HGTV shows lead you to believe! This is what the back door and eating area (to left of photo) looked like on move in day. See the straw in the walls?

This is what it looked like sometime late last summer/early fall.

Here is what it looked like at the beginning of this August. All the plaster is down, the trim and molding have been removed, the walls are gone, and the hardwood flooring has been removed.

Here is what it looked like for the vast majority of the time we were there last month. The joists were almost all leveled and almost ready for the new subfloor. The wall by the back door still needs to be removed to allow for new french doors.

In the process of taking the wall down.

What it looks like now! We have a (level) subfloor! Wahoo!! I never thought I'd be so excited over a floor, but this is great because now it means we can start putting it all back together. The only thing is we have to figure out one tiny problem of moving a double joist where the dumbwaiter is supposed to go before we can finish laying the last 1/4 of the subfloor. Guess our architect forgot to check for that sort of thing. Doesn't it look much more open?

Here are the photos of the other side of the kitchen. This is what it looked like when we were first looking at the house:

What it looked like last fall after we removed the plaster.

What it looked like before we pulled up the subfloor.

I don't have a picture of this angle at the lastest stage, but imagine all the stuff cleared out and the floor boards pulled up.

So, that's where we're at for now.

We head back out in another week or two and are hoping to get a start on framing the kitchen out so we can insulate it before we take a break over the winter.

Next summer is the projected date for getting the kitchen completely finished. I can't wait!