Need Help w/ Load Bearing Wall Issue

[Falcon67]

I've been in OKC after the big F5 in 1999, my wife has relatives up there. You can forget hurricane straps - ineffective at those wind speeds. They would help in a lesser F1, F2 type storm or a glancing blow. Oklahoma, northern/western Texas never really built homes in a way to "survive" a tornado. The emphasis on survive is to get people below ground or in a real safe shelter to get away from flying debris. Or run the hell away. If the storm is going to take the house, the house is gone straps and all. Google Jarrell tornado, OKC 1999. Hard to describe the feeling looking at a big double billboard tower on a giant 4' diameter pole that looks like Zeus stomped it into the ground.

 

[nolimits76]

Did you take pics of the bracing? Not for us but for yourself? Tough to tap on tile looking for studs.

Unfortunately, no. I spoke to the contractor about adding the bracing and he has assured me he did so; however, I was at work when he added and things were covered up by the time I got home.

The idea of a roof tearoff sounds more dramatic than it is. Depending on the design, a crew can rip off and in a couple of days you have a new roof designed for your needs instead of spending twice the time and as much money or more and still have to compromise. If your roof is due for replacement, it makes more sense. Maybe only half should be removed to do what you want.
I've done enough retrofitting to know saving something bad is foolish.
Do the windows go to the space you want to develop?

Yeah, it does sound a little crazy, but I can see your point. At this stage of the game, an upstairs isn't required. It'd just be nice so it's more or less in the "talking phase". It'd probably be worth getting an engineer out to evaluate and put together a firm plan on what all is required before we go to much further.

Thats starting to look nice, glad to see ya got it sorted and are moving ahead.

I've been in OKC after the big F5 in 1999, my wife has relatives up there. You can forget hurricane straps - ineffective at those wind speeds. They would help in a lesser F1, F2 type storm or a glancing blow. Oklahoma, northern/western Texas never really built homes in a way to "survive" a tornado. The emphasis on survive is to get people below ground or in a real safe shelter to get away from flying debris. Or run the hell away. If the storm is going to take the house, the house is gone straps and all. Google Jarrell tornado, OKC 1999. Hard to describe the feeling looking at a big double billboard tower on a giant 4' diameter pole that looks like Zeus stomped it into the ground.

Yup...tornadoes are scary stuff. The one I mentioned earlier was a big deal, but we've had some warnings that got close. You are right, you pretty much take shelter and worry about making it alive -- your house is a secondary concern.

 

[nolimits76]

Between work and school, I haven't had much time to post. Things on the bath are progressing nicely.

FYI, it's hard to tell in the photo but the decorative strip and wall niche is done in glass tiles. What appears black in the photos is actually dark charcoal grey glass tile. A photo just doesn't capture how great those glass tiles look in person -- well at least when me and my iPhone are responsible for the pictures, lol.

 

[nolimits76]

Not sure why the last post didn't pick this picture up, but I tried to get up close on the glass tiles.

 

[PugetDude]

Nice tile work. I like the design, glad you were able to work around the brace.

 

[volleyball]

Looks good. Did you have the contractor show you where the blocks were? You could mark it out and take a pic of that. Because you know you won't remember what he said 5 years from now.

 

[nolimits76]

Life has been crazy busy on this side, but I wanted to take a quick second to update this post. Our bath contractor finished on-time and within the original budget, despite the load bearing wall issue we faced early on.

Overall, it was a great experience and we couldn't be happier w/ the finished product and our contractor.

They set the glass today and we are thrilled with the results. Here is some eye candy.

 

[little d]

Nolimits,
that turned out nice, congrats.