It was good to take some time off after moving in, but that couldn’t last forever.  We still have a long list of things to do.  Even now, months later, the fridge is still not working, but I can’t sit still until its done.

It was time to get back to the fun stuff: BUILDING THINGS.  First order of business was the joists under the kitchen floor.  It was clear at the last two parties that people noticed the floor as soon as they went through the kitchen and that’s why we decided to fix them first.  These, at some point in the past, suffered the worst from the termites.  The original joists were half cut out and then a new joist was pieced together next to them.  Unfortunately, they did a poor job with the new joists.  They had cut them in half and then joined them by sistering a 3 foot long board in the center held together with 6 bolts.  This resulted in quite a bit of sag and bounciness.  This also bunched the floor boards together and lifted some up making for a pretty noisy floor to boot.

I pulled out the old termite damaged joists.  This was super easy.  I’d compare them to styrofoam, but that’s in insult to styrofoam.   In most cases they came down in splinters and dust.  Very rewarding quick work though.

Here I am tearing out the old joists.

After that I removed everything attached to the joists including the 3′ sistering boards.  I replaced them with a 10′ board (this is the width of the hosue) and bolted it all together with twelve 1/2″ bolts.  I’ve done two so far and it made a huge difference.  The kitchen floor, even though its not bolted down to these joists, is now quiet and doesn’t move under your feet.

Repaired Joists

I’m waiting to do the end joists for now. I’ll need to do some brick work while I have that one out and that’s just too much with a party a week away.

Another thing I got to work on was my benches in the basement.  These are based around the supports I added for the joists a few months ago.  They are T-posts made from 2x4s that carry the load down from the 4×6 which holds up the ends of any joists that have rotted out of their pockets.  I added peg boards to keep it nice and clean looking and while I was at it I removed the board that was blocking the old basement window.

Finished bench already full of crap.

Siri had jobs to do too. A few weeks ago a small metal cup fell out of the medicine cabinet and broke the vessel sink. This was pretty annoying as it didn’t seem to have taken much force at all.  The new sink looks the same but hooks up a little differently so we had to replace the board under it.  She used some leftover waterproofing membrane and then tiled it.  This is a preview of our shower as well. In the end it looks pretty good.  I will be building a cabinet under the sink at some point down the road.

Siri’s fun tile work under the (new) bathroom sink.

While Siri worked on the 2nd floor, I took it upon myself to tick one more thing off my list, even if it wasn’t important in any way.  This was to remove the drywall and panel board that covered the transom window from the inside.  The more natural light the better, plus it will help to illuminate our house number at night when the lights are on inside.

Transom window above front door. Temporary number added so people can find us.

The stained glass window could use a little cleaning and since I was already up on a ladder it was easier just to take it down so it can be worked on at a bench.

Our house number in stained glass removed from the front door transom for restoration.

Next we tackle the shower plumbing in order to finish up the drywall in the 2nd floor hallway.