the progress so far...

DAY #1- here are the "before's"-these go in order as the progress was made.. view from the bottom of the stairs...banisters and ballisters to be gone and this will be one continous wall from the staircase.

The corner of the banister at the end will be changed....look below to Day #2 to see the differences.

The view to Cole's room as it used to be...see updates below...

Future built-in bookcase area....

View from the top of stairs....

The ceiling had to be jacked up because of the sagging in order to raise it back up to normal. oh, what fun....

Sheetrock had to be cut out to add reinforcement to the ceiling since when the house was framed enough wasn't added up there then to support the weight of the water heater and AC....all the beams you see running down the middle are the added support.

cutting out the banister to insert the second column...

Day #2- today's work...the structure of the bookcase began today...and as Steve likes to put it, "It's been screwed, glued, and tattoed." The uncarpeted corner that you see was where the banister used to be. We decided on 45 degree corners to avoid those times, which we call " head splitters" when kids are just the right height and would run into a sharp corner. It also makes it easier to move furniture in and around the corner in Cole's room.This side of the former banister will just be a half wall. The bookcase is being framed at 42" tall (bringing it up to code) instead of the shaky banister which was only 35" tall and waist high. Notice the difference..

View from the top of stairs... preliminary beginnings.

Stay tuned...more to come later this week... did I mention how thankful and blessed I feel to have a father-in-law who can do this for us? (The bookcase was the added bonus and not part of the original plan until I asked for it to be added in as an added "perk").