"I know," I said guiltily. "I have to get on that."
"It's been since January, you know," my friend added.
Aghast at the accusation I had to check.
Holy cow, my friend was right! Although I do feel vindicated in the fact that I have, indeed, posted a picture of my kitchen with the new cabinets - just not a full pictorial, which I will remind everyone is not to be done, by strict order of Mike, until the kitchen is finished. We are still a floor and back splash installation away from that!
Unfortunately if anyone is expecting a bunch of pictures of dramatic changes that have occurred in the last eight months they will be disappointed. That's not to say that work hasn't been slowly plugging along, but it's mostly been tedious stuff that isn't too interesting to look at.
So what have we been doing?
Mike installed some new windows in the room that will be Maia's bedroom - once the washer, dryer and hot water tank are removed and relocated to the main level.
We have primed and painted ceilings and window trim.
Mike has removed more panelling and cellulose insulation (and we're still not done!)
But the most exciting thing is he has levelled the floor in the living room. This was a daunting task that is now complete and paves the way for the installation of the new sub floor and flooring! And heck, ya, the girls and I are excited. We have been living on the old plank sub floor since we moved in.
The problem was, at some point in the house's history it was jacked up, a block foundation installed and the cottage dropped back down. Unfortunately, there is a concrete structure in an area under the cottage, possibly an old cold storage room. When the house was lowered back down the walls of this structure caused the living room floor to hump up (they were slightly higher than the new foundation wall). In order to take this hump out of the floor Mike had to smash out the top of this structure's walls to let the boards settle back down to level.
This is "the pit of doom" as we affectionately call it. We don't know what it's actual use was. Initially Mike thought it was a cistern, for the storage of water, but when he cleaned it out there was no concrete bottom. We now think it may have been a cold storage room. A neighbour has told us that years ago, before refrigerators, blocks of ice were delivered to each of the homes on the street for cold food storage. This makes sense because the sand base of the pit would have allowed water to just drain away as the ice melted. Of late the pit has been a catch all for the dog's toys, socks, a throw pillow, a beach ball and what ever else happens to make it's way in there (often with Finn's help).
Mike has also installed some additional support structures in the crawl space. I don't have pictures of them. I'm not keen on shimmying around under the house. Mike has my undying admiration for the number of hours he has spent on his back trying to shore up the our home.
Now that this work is largely done Mike has been able to strap the living room and begin the installation of a fresh plywood sub floor.
It can't be long until we have flooring in the porch, living room and kitchen! And finally something somewhat more photo-worthy to post!
