Whew!

Have I mentioned how stressed I get when we do "real" construction?  Little worries just pile up in my brain and keep me awake at night.  I try to anticipate every problem so I can prevent it, but most of them never actually happen.  It's not that I have a lack of worries at other times in my life, it's just that they are overly abundant for projects such as removing a wall.

So we set out to install the header today to connect two rooms into one big gameroom.  First we built a false wall just to provide a little support for the long expanse of ceiling joists that would stretch across both rooms. Luckily the ceiling joists were continuous so we only need the supporting wall on one side.  My husband had the wall built and in place by the time I arrived an hour or so later.  He's getting to be a professional at this stuff!

Just picking up the header from Home Depot was a challenge itself.  The header is made from laminated lumber.  One of my many worries was that I would not be able to lift my end - but it turned out to be manageable.  We ordered a 12 foot piece so we could cut it to be a little longer than 10 feet.  We decided to use 4x4 posts as the jack studs which hold up the header.  Luckily we found studs in the wall that were already nicely placed to use as king studs.  Once my husband removed the old wall I was able to fish a new electrical line in the ceiling above the joists.  This is fortunate because there is almost no height in this part of the attic.  We then cut the support posts to the right height and nailed one of them into place.  We used this ladder to help support the header on its way up to its final location.  

It was pretty heavy and we did almost lose control of it once, but my husband ended up catching it, after a heavy bump on the head.  Ouch!  We slid one end over the secured post and used the loose post on the other end, at an angle, to support it while we took a breather.  Finally, in a last push, he hoisted the end completely up to the ceiling and I hammered the last post into place.  Whew.

Here is a shot from either side once we took down the support wall and cleaned up.  It feels so good to get that done.  Now on to the fun part.  Walls next.  Hmmmm, what color should they be?

Here we go again!

We are tearing out more walls!  Over spring break this year we spent some time at the house and, on a whim, decided to start the gameroom.  The gameroom will be made up of a dining room and an office that we don't use as such.  The plan is to knock down most of the wall separating them to make one big room.  Eventually this room would house a pool table, shuffleboard table, poker table, (that's a lot of tables!) and a TV area.

So Adam went up into the attic to check out the structural situation.  It does not appear that the wall is holding up anything except the ceiling joists, so that is good news.  We decided to make the new opening about 10 feet.  First we removed all the paneling covering that portion of the wall on both sides.  Here is the view from the dining room and office:

Then we had a little fun with the kids karate kicking the sheetrock out.  Here is what we are left with:

We also closed off the door to the office and covered it with paneling.  It is amazing to see a door disappear in a day!  I do a double-take every time I pass by.  We were able to save the paneling that we took down, although it was not as easy to put up as I had hoped.  We needed to place a full piece where we removed the paneling around the door.  They should have both been four feet wide, but it seems the piece we were trying to fit was almost 1/4 inch larger.  Trimming was difficult since we did it in place, but, once the caulk and paint were up, it didn't look too bad.

We have ordered a laminated header beam from Home Depot.  Once it arrives we will go through the process of building a temporary support wall, knocking out the studs (I moved the electrical after this picture was taken) and placing the header in place.  Unlike the master bedroom, we are not trying to bury the header in the ceiling.  In this case it will be visible, about 8 inches of it.  I am trying to decide whether to try to make it look like a hefty wooden beam or whether to cover it with paneling to make it blend into the walls.

After we get the header in, the next step will be to move all the electrical stuff around.  We plan to move the light that is currently over the kitchen island into the gameroom over the pool table.  It looks more like a pool table light than a kitchen light to me:

It has a pair of sidekick lights that will then be hung over the shuffleboard table:

It is always fun at this stage of a project when the possibilities are wide open.  We haven't really decided on any decor yet.  We know we want the room to feel darker than the rest of the house so I am thinking some kind of dark floor and a color on the wall.  I am thinking about either cork or vinyl for the floor since we really want something easy to clean up.  I am also going to need a lot of window coverings as there are four large windows in the room.  I would love plantation shutters but I am not willing to fork over the money!  Maybe some kind of Roman shade made from wood or grass will work.  I am scouring Pinterest for ideas but haven't found much like what we are looking for yet.

Hopefully it won't be so long until the next post!