Doing Something With The Foyer

The foyer has been one of the parts of the house that has been driving Mike and I crazy.  What do we do with it?  Move the front door here and take the slider out?  Leave the step down or make it level with the rest of the house?  Make it an outside room or make it a real foyer?  So many decisions and so much for just some cosmetic changes, lol.


For now we know we want to get rid of these itchy bug attracting grass bushes, lol…so Mike tears one out.  We will pull some up a little at a time.  We are saving the bulk of the outside work for spring but there is no reason not to pull a few things here and there when we have yard trash pick up once a week:)

Here is the slider that was added to the house at some point but the floor was not raised to the rest of the interior house level:

Here is the step up/down that Mike and I have been pondering.  We want to make the new front door here and we thought we could add a medallion or something on the floor so people don't trip up.  Mike's daughter thinks we are obsessing over this but we just want to make the house right:

Decision made….it's time to tear it out….what's a little more demo and mess, lol?  Mike starts off by taking some of the wall trim down.  We have to get this down if we are going to get the door out:

Taking some of the tile out where we will raise the floor:

Hmm…so was this an outside room, part of the house or just a cover up?  Notice the T1-11 that has been painted…that is outside siding that does not match the exterior of the house…or the interior.  It has to go:

Time to get the T1-11 out…yeah that is easier said than done, lol:

After using the crow bar Mike tries some man power:)

Yay…one board almost out with some ceiling damage.  Oh well…the ceiling was also installed wrong so we need to fix that:

Time to break through the ceiling:

Hmm…not much insulation in this house:

More trim coming down to make the doorway a little less in your face.  We are going to wrap this with drywall:

Taking the old thick doorway trim out:

My turn at the siding.  Using a 2x4 for some leverage:

OK…so I didn't get far, lol.  Mike taking out more trim so we can get the old siding out:

Ah something I can do…put a sledge through the ceiling, lol:

Most of it is down and a little more old insulation for me to clean up:

Now that everything is ripped in the foyer it's time for some serious thinking.  The floor is not only uneven with the other floors in the house but it is lower on the door side.  Hmm….do we take out the slider and fill it with concrete which will take curing time or do we build a new floor?  Choices choices:

We have the material to do the job…we just need a full day to tear out the old door, rebuild the floor, and put a new door in.  A few hours won't be enough for that job….so we will wait.

That's all for now.  On Thursday I will show you what we decided to do on the foyer.

Have a great week.

Lisa:)