Home Body: Framework

Once we got most of the demolition work done on the main floor of our house, we started framing new rooms and putting up drywall in place of plaster walls. Most of the plaster walls were removed on the main floor which was largely important for rewiring all of the electrical work since some of it was still knob and tube wiring, and other wiring had been done throughout the years, but none for modern living with only a few electrical outlets in each room and light switches all over the place! 

You may have noticed in photos from my first post on our home that the ceilings on the main floor were false or "dropped". The home was originally built with 10 ft ceilings but most of them had been dropped down to about 8 and 1/2 ft. I wanted the "grand" look of 10 foot ceilings again. As we pulled down the ceiling panels, we found that they were weighted down with old Sears catalogs which was kind of fun to discover. We then covered the plaster ceilings with drywall to smooth them out, and again, allow for rewiring of the ceiling lights. As all this was being done we also installed ductwork for the central heat and air which we had to strategically place throughout the house so that the forced air could get to every room both on the main floor and the second story. 

On the main floor, there were originally two bedrooms and one bathroom, but we pulled out the second bedroom in place of a bigger bathroom and a larger master bedroom. There are still two bedrooms on the second story and a third room upstairs which was originally a sewing room. 

The basement is 3 rooms; one mainly for utilities like the water heater and the basement heating unit. We removed a floor furnace between the basement and the first level of the house and "stole" wood from the floors of closets so that it matched our original hardwood to patch the place where the floor furnace had been.