WOW its been a month since my last post, it is hard to post when your exhausted from work! I have done a lot but barely a dent in the bucket list!
This last month, was time to focus on the sill and double 2x8's that support the wall between the two front rooms. It was an amazingly big PITA project!
The first part of the project, started with jacking and a LOT of jacking! It went on for days n days n days! I also had to work in the crawl space, from underneath as I had this crazy idea to save the floors. This meant digging out the crawl space, still a work in progress.
A few neat finds! A perfume bottle by Roger & Gallet from Paris and this saucer from a child's tea set, a dime is used for size reference. I also found a marble, some buttons and a blue bead that I lost as soon as I found it.
In the middle of the sill/beam replacement, we opted to knock down the ceiling in the kitchen and living room. Since we borrowed a ladder, we were able to get into the attic...but...
That led to another surprise! The parsonage also caught fire! We also discovered, the parsonage was built with the scraps of another building. This is a head scratcher! There are ads, floor boards and newspapers adhered to the wood used for the roof! I also found an ad on an outside wall 2x4 that dates the parsonage to 1888!
After that, it was time to work under the house more! Here you can see we pulled out the old mortise and tenon beams that someone had used to hold up the floor joist at some point. A coffee can is shown for size reference, the termite ate scraps are what is left of the 2x8's that held the wall up. The last picture you can see the wall just hanging, as I had to replace the bottomplate and the two 2x8's!
New pressure treated lumber arriving!!
New 2x8's and bottomplate. After n Before!
Next it was time to rip off some of the facade to figure out a way to support the front of the house, in order to slide in the new 2x8's for the new sill to ledger modification.
Time lapse of the sill/ledger install! It was a PITA as the front wall had settled more then I thought and has sagged for many decades.
The unfortunate aftermath of a sagging wall. I wanted to try so hard to save some of the plaster and the trim but as you can see. It just slide off the lath as the wall got raised back to its original position. A lot of the trim is also ruined from termites as well as from the walls being all warped.
A nice before and after....
Some more befores of the sill or lack there of :p
Now I am taking a break for a bit, more or less because I injured my already bad knee and it is keeping me from putting weight on it. Next up, I am attempting to clean up a bit and get the trench dug fora new water line. I also still have to patch up the siding on the front of the house to keep the rain off for a bit, I also need to rehang the fake paneling in the room we are attempting to stay in. I also need to get the drop ceiling backup. The bucket list just goes on and on....
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