One Sixty: Squeee-Squwah!

Squeee-Squwah!

That is the sound our downstairs floor makes - and the entire downstairs vibrates when someone walks across the current oldy floor. Not a lot - but you know when someone's walkin around. No sneaking into the kitchen for a cookie in this house.

The current wood floor floats on... well, I'm not sure what it's covering, but it's even older and rougher wood. Plus, below, the beams are way off 16 on center, therefore, there's not as many of them to properly support the floor.

So, prior to putting in a new floor, Mike wants to firm up our current one. Our carpenter has advised us to install more support beams from below and then screw down the current floor with long, high strength screws. Mike wants to hire him to do all this... and I'm wondering, how much is that going to cost for labor and materials?! Never mind the 3/4 ply that needs to go over the old wood floor before the new one can be installed.

You know - I can make cost estimates all day long and try to work out every detail. And in every single case, the job goes over budget before it even starts!

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...: Can I ask why aren't you taking out the old floor? Once you put down the 3/4" ply, plus the laminate, you are a whole inch up. Just enough to trip going room to room. If you are going to be putting in sister joists, you might as well take out all the other layers of flooring you don't need. Sure, doing it right the first time will cost more $$, but listening to your floor squeak for the next 50 years because of the extra layers you didn't need to keep in the first place seems a bit crazy.

Oh, and the only downside to laminate is that it is slippery for the pets. No natural grain, just glossy.; 2:37 PM