In which I go away and the lower level gets cleaned up and readied for a floor this week

I had to go out of town for a few days for work.  After last week's floor pulling up, post hole digging, frame painting frenzy, I was actually looking forward to the 10 hour car ride to Philadelphia (which only took 7 hours 45 minutes both ways!) and a few days of rest and sleep in a comfy hotel bed (Doubletree rocks for that!) 

I arrived home yesterday around lunch time and Greg and I went down to the building for a look around.  The boys had been busy readying the lower level for a concrete floor pour this coming week.  My first reaction was how big the place is!  WOWZA!

The photo below shows the new addition

I love posting these photos because it makes me realize what a long way we have come.  Here is a shot of the basement right after we bought the building and I started in on the 15" of concrete and dirt flooring that we had to remove from the building.  I couldn't stand up straight here. The cedar posts in the center of the room are about 6 feet tall, and weigh about three pounds. The next photo shows almost the same view but now with 7.5" tall steel support posts.  We replaced the old beams with new LVL beams and cut them up into the floor joists above.  This place will stand for another 150 years at least!

There will be much more natural light when the three full-light doors are installed 

The poured concrete floor will be level with the bottom of the door frames in the photo below

Hard shot to get a sense of anything, but this is the old wall the faces the Dockside restaurant.  Of course it was made of plywood, cardboard and plastic.  

The same wall is here, now made from cement, wood and glass

The new floor gets poured Tuesday