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Demo: At My 19th Century Victorian

Hope you enjoyed my last post on the beginning of my restoration and rebuild of the 19th Century Victorian my team is working on in Lower Rockridge in Oakland. After all the plans were completed and approved, we wasted no time taking the house down to the studs, tearing down the old addition, and preparing for the full foundation replacement.

Unfortunately, we were unable to save the fireplaceand chimney. It was damaged to the extent that it would be a hazard. We did keep the original detail separating the family and dining rooms. Sure, we could have achieved a taller, continuous ceiling height, but we believe it is more important to retain some of the original character of this home.

Yeah, we are missing a roof over our kitchen. It did rain unexpectedly a few times but I think we’ll be okay.

The future first level master bedroom has all sorts of issues. We’ll do our best to level out the floors, but in the meantime, we had to out in a temporary wall to hold the load while the house is lifted for the foundation replacement.

Upstairs kind of looks like a prison cell with all the walls gone. It still amazes me to see the original redwood framing throughout the house. Something to note, these studs are actually 2″ x ~3″ rather than the 2″ x 4″ that are used today.

The future junior suite pictured above and below with access to the balcony (which is probably not to code).

Another one of the bedrooms upstairs. Once the ceilings were removed, we saw so much space in the attic. Since the rooms are small and the roof line juts into the rooms, we are planning to raise the high of the ceiling so the rooms have a more spacious feeling. These are some of the things that you cannot plan for in advance and with any project, you make changes along the way.

The foundation above and below with the brick removed. Again, surprises here as well. There was extensive termite damage to the addition at the rear of the home which will need to be addressed.

Foundation forms in place. For the anchor bolts, we will be using one that exceeds the requirements for this home. It fact, the bolts are large enough for a 3-story property! This home has stood for over 100 years and we want to make sure it will last another 100 or more!

The rear addition walls torn down and the foundation forms in place. You can now see the new footprint of the home, which will be slightly larger that the old one.

That will do it for this issue. The next few weeks will be pretty slow as the crew pours the new foundation and lowers the house back down. Once the foundation cures, we can start framing our new kitchen! I hope you stay tuned and follow me on Instagram for more frequent updates! In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

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