To Be or Not To Be. . .Weight Bearing. That is the Question

As Skip is working away on the old front entryroom, aka the mudroom, he keeps running into delays. Delays caused by previous work done on the house. Although I am not used to rebuilding, or building, houses I realize that things, like weight bearing structures, are important items to consider.

With that in mind, Skip became a bit concerned when he removed the inner wall of the entryroom. That is the wall connecting the room to the mainhouse. It seems that the weight bearing logs have been cut and other, shorter, pieces of wood have been used to connect everything. Sometimes with only one large bolt. It looks like a giant game of Jenga.

These structures hold up our roof and floor upstairs. At least for now. 

Needless to say, we can't just patch it up and pretend it doesn't exist so Skip will have to modify the structure so that we can actually trust it to hold up the house. At least we don't live in an earth quake region!

The Creation of the "Mudroom" aka the Cat Apartment/Laundry Room, Part 1

So what do we do with the old front entryway when we have a new way to get into the house? Well, it will still remain an entryway and will be used frequently on muddy, rainy days to contain dirt. We are also planning on building the cats an awesome kitty-condo area as their home base. Lastly, the washer and dryer are being moved from the bathroom into this area.

Prior to Skip attacking the roof of the entryway, this is what the entryway looked like.

The ugly dormer over the entry was definitely on the chopping block and we wanted to match the roof lines of the 2 entryways. 

The cats will have their space to the left and the washer and dryer will be set up in cabinets to the right. We will add a big window where the current clothesrack is found on the wall to the right in the picture. We are also changing the door so that it matches the door on the new entryway.

Skip spent the afteroon and evening removing the roof, uncovering numerous wasp nests in the process. 

Finally, just in time for bed, the roof was gone. At least we have been blessed with nice weather this September and we could leave it "open" for the night. 

That is the pitch black sky as seen through our new "skylight."

The following day I came home to see that great progression had been made. 

Part 2, 3 and perhaps even 4 (and 5) will follow as Skip bounces between the two entryways. Thank you also to Magnus Kumlin who came over in the evening to make sure that all the holes were covered before night arrived again.

The New Doors

We have ordered our doors and without giving away the entire new color scheme of the house I will show you what the doors to the entryways look like.

The door in the new entryway will be joined by a vertical window next to it framed using the same color blue. It is going to look so good and more importantly, let in a lot of light!

The Making of a New Entryway, Part 1

The organization of our house is a little strange as you have to walk all the way around it to the back to enter through the front door. That just makes no sense so part of the remodel includes adding a new entryway to the front of the house.

To the left is the current entryway and to the right is the natural front of the house with the deck visible. 

First thing first. Dig a big hole. Where do you think some of the rocks seen earlier came from?

Then you create the foundation.

The window will become the door into the house from the new entryway. 

Each night when I returned home from work I would find Skip hard at work. 

As we are still waiting for the doors and windows to arrive, it is time to give the front a break and attack the back!