I have not posted too much about it but I am in the middle of a fairly major house project. Let me try the 'short- sheet' version of the story....
It all started in a 5,000 watt radio station in..... no, wait, wrong story.
It all started with an old house and an unusually heavy snowfall season back in 2014 / 2015.
The 'house' that I live in was built as a barn in 1905, typical post and beam construction that any Amish person would recognize instantly. In 1948, the barn was converted into a house of no particular type or style but is 24' X 30', two floors. But the second floor ceiling is sloped at the edges and the eve walls are only 46" tall (inside), this is along the 30' lengths. We have owned the house for a long time and have been working on it since day one, with the first floor about totally rebuilt. There was no inside entrance to the cellar (or basement), which is where the washer / dryer was, so doing laundry meant walking on the west wall, walking north and turning the corner, and entering the bulkhead on the north end of the house. I added an addition to the north end of the house, one floor only, that was 10' deep (off the 30' length of the house) and 14' wide to encompass the bulkhead opening; this provided access to the cellar from inside the house, and outside exit on the north end of the house (to the backyard) and at the same time, we moved the washer / dryer into that addition, making it effectively the laundry room.
There was never any access to the attic; it was platerboarded and plastered in when we bought the house.
Now there are some unusal aspects to this house; for example, the living room is the full width of the house, 24', and the first floor ceiling joists (which are the second floor floor, the 'bearers' of everything up there) run parallel with the peak. Huh? Now there is a hallway going into the kitchen connected to the living room, and the total distance to the first bearing wall is.... 19' but the ceiling joists are only 8" thick. Huh? Not sure what holds up the second floor- magic maybe. Now the first floor joists (the first floor floor) go the other way and cross the 24' width, which is the normal way.
Fast forward to 2015: we had record levels of snow that winter. In the spring, I was outside walking around, generally looking to see how the property fared after the winter and the snow having melted WHEN SUDDENLY, I notice that the surface of the roof looks like the ocean during a storm but not quite as smooth. Looking more closely, I can see that while the roof is significantly buckled in two directions, the really disconcerting part is along the slope of the roof; the rafters dip what looks to be about 6" in the middle..... not good.
Insert long, ugly story here involving insurance company, lawyers, structural engineers and me in the middle trying to reach a conclusion. Eventually, we reach an acceptable point.... they will cover part of the damage but not the whole thing. We are in an situation with no clear or obvious path forward but all the choices involve both pain and benefits. Because the house (barn modified by cutting out a bunch of the cross- posts) was basically 'miss- built' in the first place, putting a new roof on the existing walls was not possible. Putting up new walls and a roof would entail gutting the second floor and rebuilding. And it was not possible to save the second floor floor (the joists, the weight bearing part of the floor) because they were not adequately supported in the first place. So after a LOT of research, thinking and considering, we come to this conclusion: we are going to remove and rebuild the second floor of the house. This is extremely rare because it is not cost- effective, and this will hold true for us as well- we will never get the money put into the house back (speaking of 'real' money here, not theoretical value including imaginary or hoped- for profits). But the alternatives were worse and so ahead we forged.
But not so fast grasshopper, there are some problems here that are not so easy or obviously solved. We have to remove the roof, then the rest of the second floor, then install a new floor (the entire floor, both structural as well as the actual sub- floor), build walls and then install a roof. Two major problems: 1) We live in New England and there is absolutely no way this amount of work can be squeezed in- between rain or snowstorms, and it is not really practical to tent around an entire house two floor tall and 2) remember the post and beam construction? Well, it is not easy or obvious as to how to tie into that with modern building techniques and materials. Remember, this is all on the 'up and up', permits drawn and it must pass both inspections as well as have P.E. (Professional Engineer) structural stamps on the design. I can do the design work but I am not a structural engineer (wrong kind) and I could not stamp my own work anyway. Oh and by the way, the inside of the second floor is gutted at this point but the roof is still in place to make it weather tight and the proverbial clock is ticking regarding the next winter's snow and how heavy it will be..... enough to cave in the already- weakened roof? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I can do something to stiffen (Easy Boys! there was none of that kind of stiffening going on during this.... process) the existing structure to last one more winter? Now at this point, summer of 2015, the second floor has been gutted (3 30 yard dumpsters full of 'house' off to the landfill) and we have discovered the bats living in the attic, have removed them (driven off but not harmed, bats are protected believe it or not, and cannot be disturbed before a date set by the state, which I believe was 1 July of that year, to allow the young to be old enough to fly), found all the guano (yeah, look it up) and had that removed also. All out- of- pocket, none of this covered by insurance of course. And the roof line is slowly dropping while the outside (eve) walls are spreading..... We are still living in the house but have moved from the second floor to the first floor. But Brian you ask, was there enough room on the first floor for the first floor and the second floor? Of course not. Is there sleeping space on the first floor? Of course not. So the furniture on the second floor went into storage ($75/ month and automatic billing) and we are sleeping in the dining room of course.
August 2015, end of part 1 while I consider 839,578 ideas, paths, ways and means and reject all of them, and more. And for your viewing pleasure....
Brian
Edit: photos are too large to attach. Just imagine 'visions of sugar-plums dancing in your head' and remember, it does not look anything like that.