In the progression of things we now were ready to remove the old support beam for the original small opening and put in a larger and longer beam to carry the larger opening and its roof load. To remove the old beam we had to support the ceiling/floor joist carrying the upper floor and the main roof load by building temporary support walls on each side of the beam. To get the old beam out we had to jack up both temporary walls to take off the roof load pressure so we could remove the old beam and then install the longer new beam.  It was unbelievable how much more open the home felt with this larger opening from the kitchen to the family room.

Click on images to see the transformation.

The Customers were now beginning to feel the magnitude of what they were trying to do with the remodel, which was to create a feeling of openness moving away from what in the past was a more compartmentalized living style.

The final step before sheetrock was to relocate light switches to new walls and move some ceiling lights in the kitchen as well as in the family room.

Sheetrock Repair

We also had sheetrock repair and replacement in the family room, entry, kitchen, dining room and living room. The sheetrock work was assisted greatly by utilizing a circular power sheetrock sander on an extended pole hooked up to a shop vacuum. This made the job go faster, save on muscle hand sanding and collected the dust as it came off of the sander. One of the largest complaints that we always have is the amount of dust created with drywall repair. Our home repair division with this sander makes that process amazingly clean and efficient. If you have any repairs that you need don't hesitate to call. The final part of drywall was to texture all of the new drywall areas and we were now ready for the cabinets to be delivered.

Installing Cabinets

The cherry Kitchen cabinets came to the job all with natural lacquer finish thus minimizing the strong smell of lacquer in the homeowner’s environment. As the cabinets were being installed, new oak hardwood floors were installed in the living room and the dining room to match in with the already existing hardwood floors.

Along with finishing the cabinet installation the craftsmen also were installing larger wood base in all of the rooms and replacing  wood window and door trims that were removed in the original demolition because of changes or because the old ones needed to be re-done.  Within the next two weeks we will have all of the cabinets installed, the finish work completed then the granite company will come and measure the counter spaces and fabricate the counters to be installed as soon as the painter finishes the final painting and minimal lacquering yet to be done.

A little preview of what is coming up....

1. The decorating scheme
2. The painting colors
3. The hardwood floor colors
4. The granite counters with under mount sinks
5. Adding granite counters to an existing dining room hutch
6. Doing some remodeling in the master bath
7. Painting the upstairs bedrooms, and replacing all the carpets.
8. Moving the family back to the remodeled spaces.

Missed our other blog posts about this remodel?

Where did my kitchen go?

Phase I of the Laurel Spring Remodel