Project #3 - "The living room" Part 2 SUPPORT/ELECTRICAL

With demolition completed we can now start on rebuilding the living room. The original plan was to remove as much of the dry-bar, chimney, and half wall.  Well as you can see some of those plans changed.

The chimney was to badly damaged to remove and was never removed from the second and third floors.  So taking it out would have been a pain in the butt.  The dry-bar was also unable to be completely removed because of the tunnel under that part of the house.  The only thing I was able to remove was the half wall, at-least its something.

Insulated and building a frame on top of the existing studs

When we first bought the house we got a great deal on a Gas Fireplace with the local ACE Hardware.  The even did the install work, I figured this was a win/win for us.  So a couple years have gone by and during the construction work this summer I turned the gas off.  When the gas company came out to turn it on they had to "inspect" the connections.  During the inspection the guy said we cant have a flex hose coming through the floor and it should be a steel pipe instead.  He went ahead and turned us on and I went straight to ACE to have a chat.

Luck would have it that the guy who installed it was standing there outside and I was able to talk to him about it.  Of course he started with looking at the picture telling me he didn't do it.  So I asked him to check his receipts.  Sure enough we found it and he did do the work, then he asked "What do you want me to do about it?"  I almost lost it at him but instead said that he needed to do the work that I originally paid him for.

While he wasn't happy about having to come out I'm sure he didn't want me saying something to the manager since I'm in there quite a bit.

This is how the gas line should look

How it was installed when we moved in

All demo done and cleaned up

Framing this out

Looking at the back board you can see how unlevel the top was.

Insulation and plywood

So much room now that the half wall is gone

The light is going away

Box headers in place, notice the older inadequate framing compared to mine.

New ceiling framing going in

First area done

Two days work and the living room is done, level and all

Holy crap this area sucked to do.

All done, now for electrical work and drywall