Phase IIIb - Add a Piano Alcove to the Living Room
This project actually started as the first step in building up the floor in the den here. That end of it, that will become the walk in closet for the master bedroom, had been a storage room for years. It had to be emptied to make room for the new piano slab.
Since the remodel of the living room, the piano has been
on the south wall, slightly in the natural path from the kitchen to the bedroom
wing.
This is how it looked, kitchen on the right, bedrooms on the left. We cut a
hole through the wall behind the piano, set forms and poured a concrete slab on top
of the den (former porch) slab. This had to be done before we could raise the rest
of the den floor. Of course the new slab had to eventually be covered in slate to
match the rest of the living room floor. Fortunately, when I ordered slate for the
front window extension, I ordered plenty to do this
project with a fair amount still left over for "other things." This is
the new slab as seen from what will be the walk in closet.
After finally finishing the den sub-flooring, we next
built the walls and ceiling for the piano alcove. This was fairly uneventful,
except for leveling the new slab with the living room, to be discussed below. We
first cut the hole through the wall. This wall originally held a large window to
overlook the covered porch that the previous owner left when closing in the porch.
Shortly after buying the house, I replaced it with a solid wall. Anyway, being a
former window wall, it already had an 8 foot header to support the roof. I opened
it from the floor to that header. We then built the surrounding walls and ceiling
to enclose the alcove. These are photos of the structure, one from the living room
and the other from the den. The den photo also shows what will be a large and useful
shelf above the alcove for storage in the closet. It will probably be left open.
After the walls, the next step was to level the new slab with the living room. It
took two layers of 1/4 inch cement underlayment with a little bit thicker mortar
toward one end. I had planned for a single layer of 1/2 inch like the living room.
Our new slab was pretty level but the living room was not and the old stem wall
between the two was even worse. The first 1/4 inch brought the new slab up more or
less even with the stem wall and the second, covering the stem wall, brought it up
to the right level for the slate. I didn't get any photos of the underlayment
process but this one gives an idea of the nature of the stem wall and the abandoned
floor vent that had to be filled. The other is the finished floor with slate to
match and baseboard installed.
Actually, we skipped a couple of steps there. You probably noticed the new walls
were covered with sheetrock before those photos and before leveling the new floor.
Also after laying the slate, I painted the whole south wall before installing the
baseboards. There was over two weeks delay in the process. No local stores carried
the matching baseboard in stock anymore so it had to be ordered. After it came in,
I went looking for the corner blocks, which I'm sure I had seen fairly recently.
Again, those had to be ordered, resulting in another lost week. Then, of course, it
all had to be prefinished before installing, another few days. Finally, hang the
art, install lighting and other electrical stuff and put the piano in its new home.
This was not trivial and required some days of planning. The alcove opening is 6-1/2
feet wide and the piano is 5 feet and weighs between 500 and 600 pounds. With help
from a son and son-in-law and a little "southern engineering", we managed
to get it done. Finally, this is the piano in what should be its permanent home.