Well, what can I say, we finally got around to joining the home owners club. It sure has been a rather splendid time renting for the past decade or so, but we’ve decided, it’s time to make something our own! That, and finally having a fenced in yard for our poocher, the Gracie Allen. Priorities, y’know.
First things first, everything will be getting a nice coat of Kilz! Seriously, I am not sure what all went on in there, but damn, it is so dang funk nasty. Oh yeah, we’ve decided to do a little demo while we’re at it as well!
Okay, maybe the “little” bit of demo part was a bit of an understatement. Aside from the planned opening of a wall (kitchen to living room), and adding a new doorway to a bedroom, we’ve uncovered quite a bit of damage to the floors and floor system, and exterior walls. Not much of a surprise, as the place is almost 70 years old.
Our initial plan after opening the walls, was to redo the hardwoods throughout; however, that has proved to be futile. As we’ve torn through layers of linoleum and vinyl, as much as three layers in some spots, the uncovered wood from below was a sight for sore eyes, and in an unsalvageable state. Ack!
Our first culprit I suspect, is water damage. Throughout the years, the water came careening down the walls (the roof has no overhangs) seeping into the house (virtually everywhere near a window), creating “streams” under the floor. Oh yeah, and couple that with a tremendous amount of pet staining, we’re talkin’ total obliteration. Yup, we were rather distraught upon finding all this out, but it had to get pulled. On the bright side though, it already smells like 100-times better in the place!
Once we got all the weight of the hardwood up, we directed our attention to the wonky subflooring. In some spots, it sagged close to two inches! Once in the crawlspace, we figured that about a dozen joists needed to be jacked up or replaced all together. Well, to make things easier at replacing them, we went in through the rotten sill plate on the side of the house! Once we got them installed, we replaced the badly damaged sill and rotting band joist.
