Adding a header

This week has seen minor progress until today.  I decided now was as good as time as any to tackle one of the more major elements of the remodel, the opening up of the stairwell and part of the rec room.  It started with a trip to Menards where I discovered that their in house engineer will actually do the load calculations on beams and headers for free...bonus.  He did the calculations and figured I needed two 8' LVL's at a depth of 7.25.  They don't actually stock that size but since their is ductwork in the basement where the header is going I decided to get the next largest size (9.75).  The actually loss of headroom is the same since the ductwork in that area protrudes down farther than the 7.25 header would have  anyways.  On to the pictures:

Here is the basement prior to the header.

What is shown here is the to temporary support walls in place prior to the demolition.

More f-bombs than "Scarface" and one step-stool thrown across the floor later, here is the finished space:

We are very happy with this and it makes a HUGE difference in how much space their appears to be down there.