Slow and Steady

Old house restoration can be costly and time-consuming. There are always hidden surprises. And if you intend on hiring the work done you'd probably be better off starting from scratch because of the expense! But, if you are lucky enough to have a Fix-it-up chappie like I do, then you are lucky indeed.

These days you can Google almost anything and read how to do it. Check YouTube to watch how to do it. Or ask on Facebook and someone will give you tips. There's so much help out there that for the industrious do-it-yourselfer the sky is the limit!

(Speaking of hidden surprises, this one was found between the walls... and it wasn't there last week. Yikes!)

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The last two owners of LMV were single women who seem to have trusted the workers they hired to do quality repairs. But they didn't get quality work and those repairs didn't last close to 30 years. That goes to say, there is a lot of work to be done here. So far we have done ALL the cleanout of the main house ourselves which was five 30 yard dumpsters full!

Dwight has demoed the floors, sub-floors, and floor joists in the kitchen, hallway, dining room, and parlor, and the wall around the South front doorway. (Meanwhile, Grace and I hauled construction materials to the dumpsters, provided moral support and water, and served as trusty Go-fers!)

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And FINALLY, we have moved on to repair in this third of the house. Last weekend Dwight jacked up the wall around the South front door, rebuilt the wall, and replaced the rotten rim joists there. He has also jacked up the South front parlor/dining room wall to replace rim joists and level that section of wall, which had dropped 3/4 of an inch due to a brick foundation pier being too short. Sounds like such a simple task! How hard could it be for one man? ?

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Well, it required building beams to support and hold the weight of the second floor so he could cut away the old rotten floor joists and put in new ones. And finding steel plates to keep the jacks from digging holes in the wood. And buying powerful enough jacks, AND enough of them to lift the weight. Then we needed a laser level to run a line to make sure the floors were jacked up level all the way around the room.

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Yay!!! He did it! Next, Dwight will finish adding hangers to the rim joists and hanging the floor joists, then we can put a sub-floor back in this part of the house!! And that's a BIG deal!

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"Do-it-yourselfing" brings great pride when it's accomplished. It may take a lot longer than hiring it all done, but by working slowly and steadily, we will make it to the finish line and we will save this old house. As the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race!