Pardon me, but you have a hole in your ceiling, or is that the floor?

Got to the cottage today after almost three weeks away to find a whole lotta hole in the ceiling!

If you embiggen the first picture, you will see a platform just behind the red ladder, this is the new half landing for the stairway to the second floor. The hole above my head in the photo used to be the hallway upstairs. When the chimney was removed during the prior renovation, the second floor hall was put back together with a mishmash of boards and vents and screws, so in our efforts to really make the place sparkle, Greg took the hallway out yesterday. We have saved enough boards from our demolition to replace the floor there easily. What I love is that new window in the upper center of the photo which will illuminate the stairway and fill it with natural light. The window to the right is the corner of the master bedroom.

This photo shows the other end of the hall. The taupe paint on the second floor delineates the upstairs bath. The small window on the first floor directly ahead will be where the new second bathroom is going (used to be the outside door into the kitchen) You can see how wide the span is between the second floor floor joists where the hall is located...We'll add another floor joist here to strengthen up the floor.