As you can see, there's a lot of space inside that wall. Remember that scene in The Matrix, "Tank, I need the main wet-wall?" I didn't realize that might actually be practical. I assumed that this was typical Hollywood bullshit, like crawling through air ducts! (Though some of our duct work is large enough to fit in, the deal-breaker is that ducting is light, so it's held on loosely enough that the weight of a person inside would bring the whole thing down. Dear spies and commandos, please do not try to infiltrate DNA Lounge in this way, thanks.) Speaking of ducts, we've got new ones. Also an alcove around where the upstairs stairs will go. This will have doors on the outside of it. It's there because you're not allowed to have doors right at the top of stairs.
Remember that big beam we had to put in? This is what a cross-section of it looks like:
It turns out that high-load structural wooden beams aren't actually made from trees any more. It's more like a "pink slime" situation. They have a conveyor belt that squeezes a slurry of wood chips and epoxy through a mold. As the extruded beam rolls down the belt, the glue is cured by it passing through a continuously operating microwave oven. Then they crimp it off at the desired length.
Remember that 12' piece of threaded steel that we epoxied into the foundation of the building to hold up the second floor? This is the top end of it:
And, photos! Of events, instead of construction detritus:
