Carpentry Hero

I hired a carpenter to help us shore up our foundation and repair the huge hole in our wall. Dean, the carpenter, was great. We'll definitely ask him for help on future projects.

First order of business was the rotting posts and joists. Ryan worked really hard to clear the soil away from all the posts and piers. Then, he and Dean pulled out the rotted post under the bathroom and repaired about a dozen joists under the porch, living room, and bedrooms. The results were immediately apparent. Our soft, squeaky floors felt way less like they would collapse under our weight. And most of our interior doors needed a bit of a shave to open and close properly.

That's not good.

Much better.

One of many less than stellar floor joists.

Some were so far gone they fell away with a little prybar work.  We replaced them with new, pressure treated boards.

Some boards were damaged, but not enough to merit removal, instead they got the buddy system.

Once we finished with the underside, it was time to head indoors. It took Dean about 5 minutes to pull out the old boards. 5 more to cut the new ones. And another 5 to install them. I barely had a chance to get these shots.

The tip of the iceberg. Haha, the entire bottom two feet from closet to closet fell away with a little poking.

That's not good.

As I vacuumed the dust out of this space I was begging the floor to stop disappearing.

Hey, I can see my linens from here.

Clean slate.

That's better, I guess. We're working on it.

So, good news. We've got the wall fixed, and the foundation is good enough for now. We'll replace the moulding, baseboards, and scuff boards later. When we're ready to paint. But before we can start painting, we need to finish rewiring.