Basement - again

Several months ago I posted some photos of the destruction taking place in our basement. It may seem logical to suppose that because no further story or photos have been posted since last March I've neglected to keep my blog updated. But that would be wrong. Hard as it may be to believe, actually what happened is; nothing! Instead I worked outside, went hunting and pretty much avoided going downstairs.

Sometime around Thanksgiving I came down with a case of motivation and I can't seem to shake it. I'm afraid it might last all winter!

This photo from a previous blog was the last photo taken of Kyle's old bedroom before walls and doors started coming down. The drop ceiling and what were two closets on the left have been removed but basic room layout is still the same.

The long period of "nothing" started here I guess. It looked like this (below) for a long time.

The closets had come out in the previous photo but not the back wall of those closets.
Now they have been removed except for the 2x4 across the floor and a couple studs that supported a small gas heater.
The main issue now is those two support posts are in the open instead of being hidden by closet walls. What to do? I initially wanted to put up a new beam spanning 20' and remove those two posts but I learned after consulting an expert (thanks Bruce) that it would take a pretty impressive steel beam to make it work which was doable but daunting. Time for a change of plans!

Instead, the middle post which supported the concentrated load from upstairs stayed and we were able to add two LVL beams (back side) to the existing beams and span about 11 feet and remove 1 support post.

Now here is a pretty impressive bundle of wood supporting the first floor. Upon removing the 1 support post we had no deflection whatsoever. While I had good advice on how to do this, it was the first time I'd attempted such a project and it was exciting to see it work perfectly after all the planning and effort.

More later.