Turnaround Point in Sight - Final Rotting Main Floor Coming Up (Aug 19 - 25, 2019)

No, it wasn't a hot flash making me sweat. Just me after pulling up the final floor boards upstairs.

It was hot work but so great to be done upstairs outside of a little cleanup

Scott moving dirt around the foundation

The weather has been fantastic which has really helped. Not only it is nicer to work in good weather and too much rain would have made it tough to move and smooth the earth around the foundation. We did get a little, just enough to help settle it which is helpful.

There was no getting the main floor boards up in one piece

After finishing upstairs I moved to the main floor.  We had spent time and energy carefully removing the stuck on oil cloth from the floor when we should have pried up one of the floor boards first. They were nailed down with so main large nails (3 across each 5" board every 5'), it was a fight to get every piece of them up. Splits and splinters everywhere. 

Nothing to save. Lesson learned.

The upstairs ones came up more easily and if all goes well planing them we expect to have enough to do the bedrooms and mudroom.  

Picture Perfect - Scott playing on the tractor
Love this view, looking forward to seeing it through new windows

With the trench around the foundation, the gangplank is our entrance

Earth all moved, ready for the next step

The stairs got more bouncy as Scott took them apart - no surprise!

We loved the stairs but they were too narrow and we are moving them 

so they also came out. 

Stairs are going. Temporary supports are in place.

Interestingly, the sub-floor was also the only layer used over the joists originally and was worn so smooth, likely for about 50 years, that the knots in the floor remained raised , smooth but tripping us up when we walked over the most used spots.  

In other areas the sub-floor was so rotten Scotts foot went through.

 It's been a lot of fun peeling back the layers and seeing the evolution of a house over 123 years.  

The main floor is truly open concept now

Sadly the sub-floor and the joists have been rotting for a long time. In a few spots the sill has completely disintegrated, you can literally brush it away with your hand.

We are replacing it all.  The studs sit in pockets cut out of the sill. 

Notice the studs have been cut off about a foot from the sill and some support bracing is in place.
You can see the holes/pockets in the sill where the studs sat.

The sill has been removed on the east end - light is shining through

The joists are dovetailed into the sills on the north and south sides. 

Sub-floor and joists will come before replacing those sills.

Open concept includes the basement now

The nails holding the sub-floor down were huge and plentiful

Bit of a curve in one of the centre beams

Meanwhile, the apple tree outside is dropping hundreds of apples. They get crushed as the tractor drives over them and it smells strongly of rotting apple sauce. Not so pleasant.

Looking at the forecast we figured Wednesday might be one of the last truly beach worthy days so we took off and enjoyed Basin Head again. No pics but we had a fantastic day.

Veda (Scotts mom) was scheduled for surgery on Thursday in Summerside and found out that she needed to be there at 6:45 am so she and I headed for an overnight in Summerside (1 hour 40 minutes away). The surgery to remove cancer from her nose was performed by a plastic surgeon. He noticed a growth on her ear as well and took it off at the same time. We drove back to her place and I spent Thursday night and Friday hanging out with her. She will need to sleep sitting up for a few weeks and we'll change the dressing every couple of days but overall Veda is doing well. Quite the trooper.

Scott stayed home and ended up with a good pile of wood. We took 3 trailer loads to the landfill on Saturday. Check out how rotten some of it was.

Rotten sill pieces

Reclaimed copper

Sunday was a beautiful clear day. After a few errands, Scott dumping the motorhome and me spending some time with Veda we hung out by a fire, stripping wires for fun. We removed a pile of wiring from the house and are doing our best to reclaim the copper.