Out with the old...

It's been another long two weeks of silence, but work has still been going on at the house. I've been extremely busy at work since a co-worker has been out, so I've had little time to take or post pictures.

A welcome sight of progress. Since our last dumpster fiasco with the car incident, I can no longer have a dumpster sitting outside my house. So I must collect the debris in the front and then hire the dumpster for the day. Sadly, though, what you see here is mostly flooring.

The Great Room

I only had two and a half rooms left in the house with flooring, one being the Great Room. But I knew it would have to come out because part of it was damaged, a wall was removed, there is a huge hole in the middle where the fireplace was, and also two small coal closets came down. All of these things left nasty scars and voids.

The Fireplace Remnants

I have water drainage issues, which I believe I touched on in an earlier post. These issues are what have eroded my foundation piers and caused the house to settle these past 99 years or so. It's all been jacked up now (thanks to the Flu Contractor) and is perfectly level as can be, but the piers need to be rebuilt. All of them.

The Little Bedroom (that could!)

So the rest of the floors have been demoed. I have new walls and no floors. And I need new piers and quite surely an entire foundation wall along one side of the house, where the water problem originates. And maybe some sort of weeping tile/french drain. All of this before any other progress begins. On the plus side, the absence of floors should make the plumber's job easier. On the minus side, we've uncovered even more joists that need attention, which means more money.

And all in all, it's fine. I'd rather have a strong, new foundation that an older, questionable one. Same goes with the floor joists. And with my new walls, I'll have a truly solid backbone on which to begin again, when I put back. The only downside is that most of the money I'm spending, no one will ever see. Well, except for those who stop by my blog. But I guess that's what it's about, too.

I have to fix what needs to be fixed. So yes, some of the superficial, cosmetic touches I'd been thinking about in finishing the interior (and exterior), will have to be downsized or replaced with more inexpensive choices in order to stay in budget. And maybe down the road I'll be able to upgrade.

I know that this will all be worth it one day, when I move in. There have been a lot of two steps forward and one step back going on. Yet, I try to remain optimistic, but realistic.


I still have a long way to go.