The first project to frustrate us was the hardwood floors. It turns out that we had active
termites in our floors. The exterminator sprayed and finally eradicated them. During Christmas weekend, when family came down, Ron, Howell, Bobby and I worked on the floors and were able to get in the new boards prior to lunch! I am very pleased. I still have yet to sand them down and redo the whole floor so it all matches... but we have a floor!
The next project was more of a want than a necessity. Though I could argue that a good, solid work bench is necessary, having a floor does take precedence. I decided to make this thing very substantial. I used regular pine for the framing and pressure treated 4x4s for the legs with solid 2x10s for the top. I am quite pleased with it. It offers a great work area and also a way to organize all my junk. Well... most of it. It is 8 feet long and I have argued that should we ever have to shelter refugees, this could also double as a bunk bed for 2 adults, or 1 adult and 2 children or 4 children... ANYWAY. It is the first project for making my shop. All I need now is MORE TOOLS!
The most recent (and current can of worms) is replacing the floor of our fireplace. It all started 
with the harth being uneven... so being the investigatory craftsman that I am, I survey the underlying cause... the verdict, lowsy fix-menship. It is half-collapsed under the house and I remove most of it by hand. I procede to knock the rest out with a sledge hammer and now have a giant HOLE in my floor... this time it goes ALL THE WAY to the dirt!
I plan on pouring a slab of concrete, letting it set-up a bit, ancor the cinder-blocks in it, mortar the blocks, fill at least 75% of the space with "57-stone" and top it off with concrete leaving a lip so I can put granite in the harth.
THE PROBLEM, however, is that two floor joists are so eaten by termites that I removed most of it with my hand! So, now the fireplace project is on hold until I can get my hands on a reciprocating saw to cut out the bad boards, then I need to insert NEW boards (pressure treated). Once I get those secured, I need to jack up my floor and put supports under the new boards... Once this is accomplished... THEN I can begin my fireplace project. Until then we have another hole in our floor...
WHEN WILL IT END?!?!
2 comments:
have you ever seen the movie "The Money Pit"? :)
just kidding--our house is the same way: "well, we'd like to side the house, but it doesn't make sense to do that until we re-roof and do the addition...and it doesn't make sense to chisel out the rotten parts of the front porch until we're addressing the rest of the exterior, and we really can't landscape until we've completed all exterior construction...so the long and the short of it is...
we'll NEVER be done."
Welcome to home ownership. Even after 30 years in the same house, well, you've seen the house. . .
No, it never ends.
But at least you're doing something about it! Congratulations!! I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am that you are taking steps to learn to do the necessary home maintenance and repairs. THERE ARE NO VICTIMS except those who choose to be victims. . .
Enough said. I love you BUNCHES!!!!
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