The wall is down - and the house is still standing!

Well, it's a done deal.  The first floor of our house is basically one gigantic room, with the exception of the stairs and the powder room.  It was definitely the right move but we've still got a lot of work ahead of us in this corner of the house.

Forgive me for leaving you on the edge of your seats for so long after we failed to determine whether or not the wall was load-bearing after removing the plaster.  We took down the evil popcorn ceiling and made a final determination: YES.

Time to call in the pros.  Cue Jeff.

Jeff sandwiched together some 2x12s, which will now be holding up our house.  Installing it was a pretty cool process.  First Gabe and Jeff built some temporary supports to prop everything up whilst removing the studs.

"Looks about right, bub."

Gabe chipped in with a little elbow grease.

After much heaving and ho-ing, that sucker popped right in!

No, it wasn't snowing in the house (although Sunday River was the first mountain in the country to open for the season last Friday).  That's just the dust that we'll be living with for the next who knows how long.

Since this beam installation, we've gutted the rest of the room, including removing the blown-in fiberglass insulation that was in the wall between this room and our bedroom.  It was evidently put there before our bedroom was added on to the house, when it would have been an exterior wall.  We have a theory/prayer that removing that insulation will help our bedroom not get as low as 46 degrees on winter mornings anymore.  (If only that were an exaggeration - yes, it does have its own radiator. Might as well be sleeping in a meat locker.) Also, we plan to put a woodstove just to the right of where Gabe is standing in the picture above.  That should help too!    

Next up:  adventures in home wiring.  Wish us luck!