Vintage Life: To the Floor Joists

During the two month-long demolition phase of our 1920s bungalow renovation project, we discovered that the original pine floors, which we had planned to refinish, were actually completely dry-rotted due to a moisture problem under the house.  So not only did we tear the house apart to the studs, we went all the way down to the joists.

I don't know why we didn't take more photos of the house without any floors - I think we were too focused on trying not to fall while stepping from joist to joist.

It didn't work though - I got a little too careless and ended up slipping off a joist and falling through. Yep, huge ugly bruises.

Greg stepped on the end of a board that suddenly became a see-saw - he ended up with a couple of broken ribs from falling right on the joist.  Bungalow 2, Aimee & Greg 0.

We did have to replace some rotten joists in the bathroom, kitchen, utility room and the family room.  Then we put down new, tongue-in-groove subfloors throughout the entire house.  Below is the front room with the new subfloor.

We also began to change the flow throughout the house by removing and building walls.  Below is a view from the front room toward the front bedroom.  We have closed up the door to the left side of the fireplace and made a new opening to the right side of the fireplace.

You'll have to read the next blog post to find out how the flow will change as walls come down and new ones go up.