Half-Strapped

Well, we have gotten pitifully little done since the last post, mostly because we've been doing fun things. We've had family in town, and gone to see family, and will have family in town again this weekend. Which is very, very nice, actually. But it does push back timelines for getting stuff done on the ol' rat hole.

We did manage to get the beam halfway strapped down, though. We need to do surgical demolition to strap down the other side, as we're not ready to take out the ceiling in the den yet. It's one of the few rooms we actually live in.

Anyway, in these photos you can see us putting the support for the north end of the beam in. About where my husband's rear end appears is where the fireplace will be, as well as a bump-out (which will be obscured by the fireplace) for the fridge so that it doesn't stick out so far into the kitchen.

In this picture you can see where we're going to move the opening from the dining room into the den. Next we'll have to open up the wall to the north end of the beam, and we'll be almost finished with the framing of the room. We have to move the kitchen door, put in the ceiling joists and scissor truss, and then we can start running electrical wiring. Hooray!