We should take out another floor, we said. It will be fun, said no-one...

So, in the beginning we put supports under some of the floors, remember? Well....come to find out, we did not like the support that they provided, or lack there of. I can hear my dad distinctly saying, "Do it the right way the first time and you'll only do it once". Hard cringe. But, we thought we were doing it the right way at the time, so there's that. And I will say, even though we are not going to live in this house, someone else will and we want them to have a quality home for years to come. So, we took out another floor. And it was a good thing we did because the damage that we discovered once we started pulling it up was really cringe worthy. The floor in the living/ family room still had quite a bit of bounce when you walked on it. Part of this was because the floor joists were placed 24 inches apart and the other reason is because some of them were rotten from termite and moisture damage. We went back and forth about whether we wanted to pull the floor up or not but we are so glad that we did!

Below you can see some of the termite damage and how weak the floor joists were. Some of them just crumbled under the pressure of a sledge hammer.

Next, you can see the clean up of the crawl space and the beautiful hand laid rock foundation down the center of the house. No matter how many times I see these foundations, I am always amazed at how they were able to hand stack rocks to support the weight of a house and how it stands up to time. We placed another moisture barrier under this floor to protect the new joists and floor system.

Meanwhile, upstairs the girls and I were rocking out floor installation of one of the bedrooms with repurposed wall/floor/ceiling boards from other areas of the house.

And finally, we have new floor joists awaiting a new subfloor. The difference is amazing. Every floor system on the main floor is brand new and that is a good feeling :)

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So far, 2023 has been productive. We welcomed grand baby #6 into the family and kleine frau is expanding. After a very hard season following the loss of my dad, a new life is a breath of fresh air. Although I still have 2 kids at home, grand babies are life :)

Genevieve Maxine 2/2/23

Stay tuned for updates on our newest project!