"P.S. While we fully appreciate why you are here, you do need to be an engineer to utilize these forums."
What I meant to say is, I'm not a structural engineer.
Here is a sketch-
(left image is existing, right image is proposed)
img...
I'm not an engineer, though I appreciate the principals involved and I can imagine how a structure transfers load. I've been asked to draw a structural modification and something tells me it doesn't function like the guy thinks it does.
I'll do a sketch if my explanation isn't clear...