There has been progress in the basement this week, every day. The corrections I wanted were made, the ceiling was insulated (making it seem almost dead down there, with the lack of sound) and they started putting up the drywall today.
There is a big beam that hangs overhead of where my desk will be. I don't like it - it blocks the window - but I never considered that it could be removed. The contractor has also disliked it from day one. He's complained about it a number of times, but I never expected him to do anything about it.
Yesterday, he surprised me by arriving with both an engineer and the city building inspector to discuss removing the beam. Much measuring and mumbling occurred, and they left with the general understanding that the beam could go - they'd just need official signoff from the building inspector. Today, they arrived with cheers of "The Beam is Going to Go!", and I heard sawing and hammering start up right away. Shortly after that, his phone rang, the hammering stopped and the contractor called me downstairs. Sadly, the beam has to stay. The inspector had signed off on the removal of the beam, if the room was 16 ' wide, but they remeasured one last time before they pulled it out and discovered that the room is 18' wide.
There are options to beef up the joists that will mean the beam can come out, but that would cost a lot of money. Since I was satisfied to keep it a week ago, I decided to keep the money and live with the beam.
Oh well.
This is what the room looked like when they went home today. Suddenly, it seems a lot smaller, but it'll stretch out once the furniture, etc is in place.
They'll be back tomorrow to finish the drywalling. Mudding and taping is next week, and then it's over to me to paint before the floor goes in.
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