Head Room and Entrances

So, I think we can say the renovation has officially started.  One of the things that has been really bothering us about the family room is an attached addition that we've been calling "the sun room", since it probably has more windows than anything else.  The room also has two exterior doors and a low ceiling.  The two doors won't be addressed for awhile, but the ceiling really needs to be changed.  This area is meant to really be the main back entrance to the house, and it feels very tight and stuffy when you walk in the door.  So, to make the room feel bigger and more dramatic, the ceiling will get raised or vaulted.  But first, we had to see what was up there...

Getting started, I realized pretty quickly that the ceiling was plywood.  What a pain!  And somehow they managed to get it between the top plate of the wall and the ceiling joists.  I don't even want to know how they did that, or why.

With all the plywood, crappy and gross insulation down, a real inspection could be done.  Turns out it's definitely something that was constructed in the last few decades, with fairly modern materials, or at least material sizes (2x6's and 2x4's instead of actual rough cut lumber).

The tongue and groove planks for the roof appeared to be in great repair.  A big relief!

But, I was still seeing some things that didn't seem quite right.  Not necessarily wrong, but just strange and not your typical "framing by the book", but pretty sturdy.  The wire routing was what really caught my eye.  Not supported well and will need to be addressed.

Oh yeah, and about 20 mud dobber nests!  Thankfully all old and evacuated.  But, they still give me the heebee-geebees, for some reason.

With all that, it was pretty much necessary to pull the rest down.  The walls were easy, but revealed a few more things.  Mostly I wanted to make sure the wiring was correct as well as insulation and of course structure.  Basically it's a clean slate now!

Time to start planning the next step.  Raising the ceiling!  It just may get a cathedral ceiling with raised double collar ties, boxed and stained.  I'll have to do the math on the structure, though.  The look is worthless if it won't hold the roof up.  I already know that the windows don't have the proper framing.  So now is the time to fix it.