beams & vaulted ceilings

I am so excited that we got the beams installed. It looks amazing. The upstairs feels so much bigger and its going to be such an amazing space.

This was the downstairs before the post was removed and the beam was raised and replaced. 

Here are the temporary walls Mark had to build before the beam could be removed to make sure the joists didn't fall down. To be clear, that isn't Mark in the picture but his awesome friend who came to help. He and Mark get a lot of work done together and talk just as much ;) It's fairly impressive.

Once the guys cut the joists so the beam could be raised higher than the old beam and got the beam on the lifts, they slowly raised the beam. The pictures make it look easy but they still had to pound a sledgehammer to get the beam to settle into place, about 6" higher than the old beam. Makes for a lot of additional head room.

Here they are again cranking the lifts on either end of the massive beam.

Here is another view of the joists cut and the beam placement.

 

And Voila!! Since we increased the quality of the beam (it was the same size as we had before), we were able to remove the post that was in the middle of the floor.

 

Here is Shane walking the plank!

Basically the same process was done upstairs too. Mark built two more temporary walls to support the rafters.

Then they raised the beam and connected it with hangers.

Then the rafter were raised up and connected to the beam. Wow!! It makes such a huge difference.

 

Another angle.

 

 Next up, the stairs!