After much deliberation, the clients decided to go with the three bedroom floor plan outlined in Option 3.  (See Floor Plan and Design post for floor plans of all 10 layouts that were considered.)

Whenframing interior walls, one of the most important and often timeconsuming tasks is “laying out” the walls.  Layout involves physicallymarking wall footprints on the sub floor as outlined in theconstruction blueprints.  One must not only consider wall location, butclearance must be maintained for doors, trim, light switches, andbathroom fixtures.  Such detail is generally not included inconstruction blueprints, but left up to the remodeler to determine.While the actual carpentry involved in interior framing is relativelysimple, remodeling an old space adds another layer of difficulty toboth layout and execution.  Old walls are never plumb or square, soonsite layout decisions must be made and approved by the client.

Afterestablishing the square (which in this case was the structural hallwaypartition wall), we began to layout the bedrooms, bathrooms andkitchen.  Using a laser level, and some basic geometry, we soon had allthe wall locations marked.  (Wall bottom plate locations are markeddirectly onto the subfloor with chalk and pencil.)  Once this wascomplete, we built each wall on the ground by nailing 2×4 studs(centered on 16”) between the top and bottom plate.  As each wall wasfinished, we stood it into place, and nailed fast the top and bottomplates.  Utilizing two compressors and pneumatic nail guns, a crew offour carpenters completed wall framing on the first floor within athree-hour period.  As we do in any remodeling project, we addedblocking between wall studs for kitchen and bath cabinetry.

Sincethe floor plan is almost identical on each floor, we moved upstairs andrepeated the process, only using longer lumber and making minormodifications to accommodate the vaulted ceiling in the kitchen.

• 

  Second Floor Framing - Looking towards Back of House

• 

  Second Floor Framing - Looking towards Kitchen and Dining Room

• 

  Framing for Second Floor Skylight Penetration

• 

  Second Floor Vaulted Ceiling with New Framing

• 

  First Floor Downstairs Powder Bath

• 

  First Floor Utility Closet

• 

  First Floor Master Bath (notice opening for tiled niche in shower)

• 

  First Floor Guest Bath (notice blocking for cabinetry)