1133 6th St- Coming Along

Our condo conversion project has reached the point where it looks like chaos, although we've made a ton of progress in the last few weeks. The basement has been excavated and we've begun framing out the new floors. This week our plan is to finish framing out the floors and begin building/installing the steps. We're still debating whether or not to build the steps on site or order them pre-assembled. I'd really also love to start putting down the radiant heating system in the basement this week if time permits.

Here's what the interior looked like after we removed the joists between the first and second floor.



This is the same floor but looking towards the front door. The worker on the left is about six feet tall, so you can really see how tall the ceiling heights are in this building. Pretty amazing.



We used cinderblocks to fill in the voids that were left when we removed the old chimneys.



We also used cinderblocks in the front of the property to build a retaining wall where we dug out to make access to the basement unit. These blocks have a brick facade and will look just like brick after they're painted.




All of the joists that we tore out were donated to Community Forklift. This non-profit organization recycles and resells building materials. The joists here are from old growth forests and are over 100 years old. This wood is stronger and straighter than any wood you can buy now. I would have loved to have used them in another project but I just didn't have anywhere to store them.



Here is the same first floor as the photo above after the second floor joists were installed. We used engineered joists because they're stronger, have less flex, and allowed us to span from party wall to party wall without posts and beams.



Framing the front wall in the basement.



You can see the new underpinning in the basement. They dug down almost four feet. What an undertaking! The ceiling height is great. Right now there is only a small opening for the door, but this will be enlarged to make way for the new full-size door.