transformations: attic (part 2)

Pretend I posted this last Wednesday. That's when I started it, but then the craziness of this week got the better of me...  more on that to come!

As of a week ago, here is where we were on the attic:

Look at all that NEW wood! The framers beefed up all the floor joists so that they could handle the new floor load. Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about?!

You can see here how they added a new 2x8 to each side of the existing joist.
Are you bored yet?

The "rough in" (definition: the sub-floor work... I think) for the plumbing was almost completed. 

 The plumber added a new drain pipe down the stairwell wall.

With all that excitement going on, the kids and I escaped the construction site for a few days at the beach with my family. It was great, though I'm not sure I would call it a "vacation". There were 4 kids (age 5 and under) in one room with my sister Ashley and me. Craziness! Annabelle got the lap of luxury: staying with "Mammy" in the other room.

There was lots of this. 

And also this.

Sweet memories and fun with the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We are blessed.

When we returned, so much had been accomplished on the attic!

We have WALLS! Only the "footprint" of the layout was there (not the interior walls), but it felt like a drastic change.

You could now start to picture what the rooms were going to feel like in size. This is the bedroom.

And this is the bonus room. Pretty similar, huh? Here's what's different: if you look closely, you can see a large LVL beam that we were not able to remove (supports a previous renovation/wall-removal in the kitchen downstairs). Because of this, the whole area between the beam and the wall (about 4 feet) will be one step up from the rest of the room. A little odd, but hopefully it won't look too awkward. :)

 Also, on the same side of the bonus room, there is a recessed area in the wall where we will install built-ins for our TV and books, toys, etc. Won't that be awesome?!

They also added the collar ties, so we can kind of picture the ceiling now too.

Curtis had been hard at work too, with the help of a few professionals. They were taking advantage of everything being open and exposed upstairs to do some quick updates downstairs.

Curtis removed the outdated track lighting in the kitchen and then cut new holes. The electrician came behind him and installed NEW CAN LIGHTS! It is fabulous. We just moved forward 2 or 3 decades in one weekend!

They also added can lights in the living room. There is even an eyeball light (the shiny point on the end of  a fan blade) that will light the painting above the fireplace. Doesn't that sound so upscale?!

Perhaps our favorite update downstairs, though, is one that our friend Charlie helped Curtis to install: a sound system throughout the house! It is amazing. There are two speakers in the living room (see above pic- grey circles), one in both the kitchen and sunroom, and two more outside on the deck!

We can control each room separately from our mother board in the hall closet. He even lent us a "speaker selector" (is anyone impressed by my expanding vocabulary??) so that we could try out our system for the weekend.

Thank you, Charlie! We owe you big time. Any time you need help... ummm.... actuating (as you call it)... or baking... or babysitting... we've got you covered! :)

Stay tuned for Attic Transformations Part 3- there have been some more BIG changes!!