Support Beam
I was originally going to put in a ceiling at 9', but I've now decided to open the room up all the way to the existing roof structure. That necessitated a few changes, but ultimately it will be better.
The new wall has many bolts tying it into the concrete floor at the base, and it's securely attached to columns on either end, but it's spanning 24 feet so I wanted something to brace it in the middle.
The new bracing beam is a double 2x8.
On one end it's attached to the center column of the exterior wall (not going anywhere).
I do have blocking in the middle to keep it from twisting. In addition to the structural support, this will be a great mount for lights.
Plywood Wall
Next up was to get plywood on at least one side of the wall. I'm trying to get everything organized and having 24' of finished wall makes a huge difference.
Already started putting up shelves on the finished side...
Roof Reinforcement
Now that I'm opening my room up to the existing roof, I want to reinforce its structure so it doesn't sag with weight of insulation, plywood, and solar panels. This is definitely overkill, but I doubled up every 2x6 purlin.
Also cleaned out the room; get it ready for some floor work!
Wow, I just noticed how well you can see the light rays coming from the window to the floor. I had just finished sweeping so there was plenty of dust in the air. :-)
Future
I'll have to add a cat door at some point.
I'm narrowing down my solar panel system purchase. The goal will be to have a small system in place by this winter for emergency power. (And it will be a good test to see how well the panels perform with the short winter days.)
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