Living Room Remodel pt. 2

I left off yesterday with the demo of my living room and today I thought I'd show you the beam going in.

This is where we left off with just the drywall torn down, in between Dan had to move and rework the wiring because we had all of our lighting, 4 outlets and our thermostat all run into this wall. 

Funny story- I was telling a guy at church about what we were doing and he asked me if Dan was experienced in doing this or if we somewhat experimenting weekend warriors of sorts. Ha! Disclaimer- I would not try and experiment removing a load bearing wall on your home without experience. Just saying. Your roof falling in is a little more than an "oops, let's call somebody." 

After all the electrical work was done we had a few friends come over to help Dan get ready to put in the beam. So first they had to build 2 support walls to hold the weight of the house while they cut out the old wall.

 

Then they cut out the old wall- scary!!

They then had to cut out the space up in the attic to the new beam.

Looking good!

 You can also see in the picture the new switches Dan put in along with the thermostat. He also ran the switches to be 3 way to another new box on the other wall so we can turn them on and off from either side.

And she's in.

Hanging a couple new sheets of drywall and the support walls come down.

Pretty sweet. I know this is a lot of pictures but I wanted to be able to document what all we did. I'm sure the guys thought I was their paparazzi or something. Coming in and out of the bedroom taking pictures where I'm trying to keep Gwen occupied with my Iphone and Chickfila. Yes...food on/in my bed. ::tear::

 I know I take my husband's mad skills for granted sometimes. Because to have something like this done to have it contracted out would be a couple thousand dollars, and the guys were able to do this in 3 hours and about $200 for the wood. Granted it's not finished out. Now I don't want you to take this as that I'm saying that all contractors are just taking advantage of you, I'm not saying that at all. I do feel some over charge but I think a lot of people don't appreciate the trade and skill and are unrealistic when it comes to time and costs of projects. (Can you tell what my husband does for a living and that we've been burned a few times?) We won't go there though....
I'll try to post tomorrow about the finishing and Dan and I getting our "Dexter" on. It'll make sense tomorrow when you see and only if you've seen Dexter. :) What I really need to do is get my stuff together and get some current pictures. It's not finished, but pretty close.