In my last Calderwood Cottage update, I showed you all the termite damage we found. We ended up removing the wood floors and subfloors on half of the house. We never intended on having to deal with this level of repair. But we’re into it now. So we figured out what we needed to do fix it. Before we started this remodel we bought a trailer so we could haul everything which would never fit in my truck. But holy moly, driving a trailer full of 16′ long 2x12s to the house was scary AF!
Then we removed a lot more stinky termite poopy wood.
We reframed a portion of one of the remaining walls. I insisted on building a temporary support wall in front of the wall we were cutting out. Julie and I weren’t always on the same page but we each occasionally let each other have our way. Whether it made sense or not. My support wall was completely useless but at the time I felt like the whole house was going to crash down on top of us. The roofline changes and there isn’t any weight on the wall we were working on. Julie said as much a couple times. But I insisted on building my temporary wall. So we did. Then a few days later when I was up in the attic space I finally got it. The fact that there was no weight sitting on my temporary, completely useless wall. But Julie helped me build it and put it in place and then take it down and apart again. ‘Cause that’s what sisters do.
Our next big task was to put in a engineered beam to support the roof so we could take out the ceiling!
The beam was not as heavy as what we were prepared for. There were four of us there, gearing up for some heavy lifting. I think I was looking for tools, Julie was up in the attic and Wes hoisted the beam up to the attic space all by himself. Sometimes he get’s impatient to “just get things done”.
Wes, Julie and I were able to fix the lam beam into place. Boom!
You know why we put that lam beam in place, don’t you? Because we are not wasting all this lovely space on an attic!
I have absolutely 0 pictures of the removal of the ceiling joists. Man did it open up the space though!
We’re only opening the ceiling up in the kitchen and living room. 
The other half of the attic we’re using as loft space. That’s the plan anyway.
We replaced the wall we had to remove in order to replace all the floor joists.
We still have to tear out the subfloor in the center section and reframe some walls. We’re reconfiguring the space from a 2 bedroom 1 bath to a 3 bedroom 2 bath.
We’ll have to do that next time. For now we’re just buttoning down.
We still had to rebuild the wall on the back of the house. We had torn it out because the termites thought it was delicious too. While we were at it, we moved the back door because we have a plan…but I’ll tell you more about that next time!
Read next post, Part 5 or catch up on Calderwood Cottage Demo Days: part 1, part 2, part 3
Bobbi Jo Thompson says
Sandra, how much time do you think you guys will put into this house? Did you have a timeline you thought would happen before finding the termites? Will you need to stop or at least slow down when the weather turns?
Sandra says
Well we knew it wouldn’t be a 30 day build. We’re hoping to complete it in our next 30 day day build. In January. I have NO idea … probably not but we’re going to try! LOL
Kathleen says
I am soooo jealous! My entire life, this is what I’ve wanted to do. My husband is more hesitant. You know, losing money and all that. If I could just get him to do a soft flip then maybe I’d be able to convince him to do an old house. There is a really old house downtown Frankfort, KY that I want so bad. Oh well, I guess there will be more. So, you guys are going to keep this as rental property? Something else I can’t convince him to do. Well, keep on girl! You got this. Can’t wait to see the next installment.
Sandra says
Our original plan was to keep it as a rental. BUT, since we found so much termite damage and had to completely gut half the house we’re able to do way more to it than we would have done if it were a mere “cosmetic flip”. So we’re probably going to go all out, make it awesome, and sell it. IF we can get what we want…if not, we’ll rent it. Maybe. We don’t know. This is our first flip. We’re learning as we go.
Mike says
Don’t you watch TV ? Every fixer upper show, always, every episode, runs into problems they didn’t anticipate. Looks like you’re doing well with the structural though, keep it up. Winters coming, plan ahead.
Kz says
She doesn’t need TV to learn that. She’s been doing renovations for years.
Sandra says
LOL Oh yeah, the TV drama! Yes, we’re ready for winter.
Dennis says
Your hauling lumber video was funny! I am a retired cop. That cop was never going to stop you, he was probably hoping his shift was almost over.
Sandra says
Oh good! LOL I needed a police escort that day! Julie was making so much fun of me because I was driving with my hazards on, going 35 all the way. The trailer felt like it was going to throw us off the road. It was so scary…
Vickie H. says
Not sure how to reach you but your link to Calderwood PART 5 is not working. Thanks!
Sandra says
It’s working for me…
Terrill says
WOW! I didn’t realize how much better it would be with the ceiling opened up!
Sandra says
So much better! Feels 100,000 times better (maybe that’s because a lot of the gross stuff is gone now too).
Chris Swartout says
How are you going to handle the collar ties. I could not tell from the photos. Given you have not started to rebuild the high ceiling, I am looking forward to the way you tie the two eaves together. The two of you are really sort of rebuilding from the ground up.
Sandra says
It would have been easier to build a new house, I think. LOL We’re bulking out that beam so the collar ties won’t be seen.