Work continued on the demo in and around the office. Since I came up with a little bit of a plan earlier in the week I'm pretty excited because as I'm working in there I can start to picture what it'll look like when complete.
So, the big thing yesterday was I started working on removing the bi-fold doors and the header above. Not sure if I mentioned this but the plan is for this whole upper space (the loft) which is about 20' wide by 23' long to be one big open room except for my little corner of an office I'm carving out of it. That means the wall that bi-sects the room at the second widow mullion from the north has to go. For the office project, I only need to get the header out of the way so I can finish off the "end" of the green wall from the diagrams below.
Here's the header still in place with the doors removed:
Here it is with the header gone!
I tried to take a pic from outside looking in to show how much more open it is already:
Not sure how that might be looking on your end. On my computer it looked better but once I uploaded it, it looks really dark but trust me...way more open! I'm so excited about it that I'm thinking about taking the rest of the wall down while I'm at it just to finish the job. That'll put me further behind but I'm already behind so...big deal. I can't wait to see that whole gable end full of winows in its entirety in that room...can't wait!
As is to be expected I discovered some things in this endeavor. Foremost is the electrical situation. I think this whole space is being fed from 2 15 amp circuits. That was probably fine in '57 but not so much, today. The power, though, seemed to be running from the back wall of the office out through the green wall across the header to the front of the room. So, that is gone. Now, those 2 circuits feed just my office, which I think will be fine. I have a plan as to how to get more power to the other side of the room but that will have to wait for a new panel. In the mean time, I'm going to pull some wire between a couple of boxes and leave it for "future" use. I think I'll ty to create a wiring diagram and hopefully post it tomorrow.
I also have a plan for the cat5 cable. I almost bought some today but thought I'd look up whether I really need cat6 or if cat5 will be ok. My router is on the far end of the house away from this room so I'm going to hardwire it from there. I need about 150'. I'll post more about this later after I do a little research. Trying to decide if, in case I want another connection in this room, if I need to run a couple of runs or if I can install a single line and just splice in a switch in the future.
One other thing discoverd this weekend is that room gets hot! It was over one hundred today and it was pretty miserable up there. There is one A/C vent that feeds the whole space but that doesn't really do anything for the space on the north (office) side of the wall. That is why the wall unit was installed when that space was enclosed, I'm sure. And, that is why that unit is going to remain there. I will most likely build an enclosure to hide it but until I upgrade the system on the whole house, the wall unit will have to stay. I'm hoping while I'm writing in November, that I will not need it. Heat may be a different story but that is easier (and quiter) to deal with.
As far as the current A/C goes...it's ok. But I have the one vent in the Loft closed almost completely off because we haven't been up there this summer at all. As we get this closer to livable, it will be imperative that this room can be cooled and not with a wall unit. As we would like to also cool the AZ room (part for more usable space and part for the beasts) I am going to look into putting a second unit on the house. I would have to take a little space out of the "downstairs" storage room for the airhandler but I'm not real sure where the compressor would go.
The existing compressor is on the small piece of roof above the powder room next to the back door. (Note, pic is from before we moved in.) For reference, the wall unit is just behind the compressor. I have been thinking about extending that low roof out anyway because there isn't enough shade in the back yard for the beasts. So, when it's at all hot, we have to keep them in more than we (or they) like. If I build that extended cover, I'll make sure it can accomodate another unit.
Oy! So many projects...
Next step will be removing the ceiling and installing the wiring and cabling. Stay tuned.
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