Oh wow. Good luck, cb!
These are huge milestones!
For some reason I thought the stairs were going to be open. That’s going to be like walking down a tunnel.
@notrichenough makes a good point. Can they be open, by eliminating the wall above the stairs?
^^That would require complete re-engineering of the design and requires the steps be supported both on one side and from below. That would be a much more expensive staircase to build.
Adding support under the stairs would be pretty easy. But those stringers look massive and I doubt they need any support at all, although some might be desirable to lessen any bounce.
The bigger issue is providing structural support where the first floor joists were cut. Cb has done it by building a wall all the way across . Possibly the wall only needs to go half-way, since the floor opening only goes halfway, but I suspect half a wall would look weird. The engineer may have required support all the way across.
It probably could have been done with columns and a beam, but that is probably more expensive, and then you have to come up with some nice railing system which would add a lot of cost.
The issue is cost - and yes, it looks like a tunnel
Because the entire downstairs is wide open and does not have any structural support beams, there is nothing available that is holding the other side of the stairs. Remember the trench we had to cut out of floor and create a new stem wall. That stem wall has a lot of anchor bolts and hold downs for a wall that needs to go up the side of the stairs. And, the wall has to be covered with thick plywood for a shear wall (which doesn’t make sense to me because it is not going all the way to the north wall to provide shear).
I am going to be able to open it up a bit at the bottom and I’m going to create a 42" high slanting pony wall for a couple of the last stairs before the landing. The last bit of stairs going down from landing into the family room will have a railing.
so here’s a thought- how about if you add some horizontal high mini windows every other step between the supporting posts -to afford a view of the family room area as you come down the stairs?? It is a LONG staircase and you do need to reduce the “tunnel” effect.
having framed in openings between the supporting posts will NOT reduce the structural integrity of the staircase, but WILL let in light and make the staircase seem less 'claustrophobic"
^^^ Nice idea. You could frame those mini-windows and have space on the little “window sills” to put objets d’art or greenery. I’m envisioning ivy that could grow down the wall that faces the rest of the room.
Not sure if I’m allowed to do that - but I’ll check. There is a plywood shear wall on the family side of the big wall - not sure if I’m allowed to cut holes in the plywood shear for windows
I have a few small skinny fixed windows stuck in my garage left over from the Guizot project 
But they are retrofit with a big flange and might look stupid. At this point - it would take 4 weeks to order a set of glass windows. They would just have to be ‘openings’
I was just imagining opening not glass, I think glass would be strange.
I like the idea of openings. If you aren’t allowed to have them completely open, how about glass blocks?
Agree that openings–with or without glass blocks would be nice and add light to the staircase. Nice idea!
I want to thank you menlopark for the great idea. I have a call into structural engineer to ask if little 15x15 openings in every other stud bay would be OK. They would have to be a minimum 42" above a stair, so we can only have them in the lower part of the tunnel.
I am waiting to hear if it is OK. If OK, does it require revised plans back to City again?? If that is required, the little windows are happening after final inspection, which means its iffy because i have to get to market.
I also want to thank dfin who has sent me a reference for the landscape designer and just sent a reference for a carpenter that’s available this week to help. At a reasonable price!!! How grateful I am and how fun to have all of your input.
Keep the ideas coming. Sometimes they just arent in the budget or are too specific taste for general buying public, but they are all great brainstorming.
So fun for us to vicariously flip!
All the fun, none of the risk.
BUDGET UPDATE
Speaking of all the risk… Oh Boy I just cannot stop the bleeding. At the beginning I thought… Oh, I’ll just have my guys do the drywall. What was I thinking??? We are so pressed for time, so many details, so many things to do. I cannot possibly sit and wait for 2 guys to try to do all the new drywall, taping, mud and texture that needs to get done downstairs. So, I need to add about $3,500 to the budget just to get the drywall done by a full drywall crew.
I am at $91,000 spent now and I think I have about 4 more weeks of severe bleeding left.
$15,000 spent for all framing and structure needed for the conversion, staircase and re-framing upstairs. I think we have four more crunch days to finish everything which will probably add another $2,000. We have 3 extra crew coming on for the rest of the week
$8,500 for landscape so far and all I really have to show for it is a big retaining wall in back and 1/2 a fence on the side of the driveway. A mason is coming on Thursday to build the tiered planters in front of the house with the reclaimed red brick. I had budgeted $5,000 (I know… what was I thinking?) and I think it will end up closer to $15,000
Will go over budget on plumbing, but that was expected because I did not originally have a whole new bathroom and sump pump thing in the budget
I came into the project thinking $82-$85k and then added the conversion, staircase and retaining wall stuff. So, it looks like close to $118k to flip this one. It will be the second most expensive renovation, behind Hoarder House on Guizot. I don’t think it is a good sign when my projects keep increasing in cost. I’m pretty sure I am supposed to get better and smarter… not slower with more mistakes and more costs
Ah, but this house will sell for more than you expect and leave you with great satisfaction and a tidy profit! All your fans at CC are rooting for you!