The Original Attic

Here is a picture of what our attic originally looked like. The stairwell is off our Living Room and comes up in the center of the north side of the house. It was pretty much a large square room with a hard wood floor, brick walls, slopping ceilings and cruddy windows. It had great potential but was very dark.

The reason why previous homeowners had not renovated was because the upstairs floor was originally built with 2x6 joists and code today is 2x10. This meant that the entire wood floor had to be removed.....

....so that it could be reinforced with 2x10s from the front roof peak to the back. A very labor intensive job and a tricky feat since it meant exposing all the plaster keys and risking the chance of cracking/breaking our plaster ceilings below. This step seemed like an impossible feat and I envisioned gaping holes in my ceilings downstairs. I'm pleased to say that it went very well and we only have a few new cracks. Nothing that cannot be repaired or isn't expected in a plaster house built in 1936.

All the old lumber and new lumber was hoisted in through the tiny window visible in the previous pictures.

A hole had to be cut in our back roof to set the beams directly on our exterior wall so that they would properly support the 19 ft. dormer.

Our stairwell leading downstairs.

A picture from the other side of the room facing the stairwell after the floors had been completed and plywood laid. The next step was the dormer. See my post from last July.