ill add to the thread as this is more of a one-time post until i really ramp up and do my kitchen, most likely next summer.
the people who reno'ed this house and put in a new foundation did a piss poor job as they seemingly jacked up the house and excavated a few inches of material out in order to pour the new foundation slab.. they should have gone another foot deeper and it could have been a regular height ceiling.. anyways, i have plenty of gripe with the people who did work on this house prior to me..
So.. this structural beam was put in place seemingly to support the joists of the main floor when the house was lifted and placed back down on the new walls.. shitty thing is with the height of the basement floor, this beam was right at head level for the main "living" area which will eventually be the suite.
So decided to install a flush beam to gain that headroom, it was a bit of a process and you never know what to expect dealing with a 100+ year old home, but it went relatively smoothly and i'm happy with the results:
before:
it begins:
ended up doubling up all the joists in question as my kitchen is going to be sitting right overhead, i dont know if the floor was as fucked as it was prior to this, but whenever i put down new flooring i have about a 3/4" dip over 4 feet around this beam lol.. if anything this improved the situation so it has seen some settling in the past 100 years