December 28, 2008

The end of the long Christmas weekend, and I thought I'd better capture a bit more of the framing before Pete and his crew returned to work and continued transforming this into an amazing addition to my house. These first three pictures all relate to the interesting bit of design that my architect Sam engineered for the main upstairs bathroom (that's positioned in the middle, between the smaller bathrooms being added on either side for the two back bedrooms). This first shot is from the downstairs looking up, with my back to the butler's pantry. In front of you are the main hallway coat closet (left) and the guest powder room (right). Up above, you can see on the left the plywood-covered doorway from the stair landing that will gain you access to the main upstairs bathroom. Alas, you will enter about four steps lower than that bathroom needs to be, so there will be stairs you'll mount once you walk into that bathroom. The new guest bathroom for the southwest corner bedroom is at the upper back of this picture. [By the way, I believe all these pics end up being clickable, so you can open them up to something a bit larger. That's necessary since my labels on this picture get a little squished.]


Now, this next shot is one I really like. You are looking down on the hole where the landing for the main upstairs bathroom will be. I climbed a ladder so that the camera has captured the view from 2nd floor ceiling height, looking straight through to 1st floor, floor level. Really dwarfs that ladder down below, doesn't it? Try not to get vertigo from studying it too closely:


The reason for this shot is because it really captures nicely what the walls of the old house look like, once you tear away the other side of them. All that one-inch lathe board with the mortar that oozed through from the plaster walls on the other side, plus that old, old sturdy and solid lumber that has helped this house endure for over 100 years:

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The framing has been done now for designating the two smaller bathrooms for those back upstairs bedrooms. This photo was taken from the northwest bathroom looking across the opening for the main bathroom's entry door, with the southwest bathroom at the far end.


I do hate a small shower, so this gives you a small hint of the shower for the southwest bathroom. I guess the perspective or size would have been more clear if I'd had someone standing in it, but you'll see it one of these days and you'll know what I mean: