Down to the Joists

     Despite the pollen, I really do love this time of year and watching all the colorful things that bloom. It seems like our yard has been even more colorful than last year! Guess the extra rain we've been getting helped :)

     Since my last update, we have put in new floor joists in the now enclosed future dining area (former back porch) and ripped out all the layers of flooring (two layers of vinyl, particle board, two layers of hardwood, and subfloor) in our long-gone kitchen. 

     Other than the photo of our temporary kitchen from this post, I don't think I've told you much about it. The temp kitchen includes a refrigerator, microwave, and super amazing slow cooker. Not that our slow cooker is really fancy or anything, but it's our primary way of cooking meals these days. The only thing I really miss is baking. It was a VERY sad day indeed when I boxed up my baking supplies and stored them upstairs. I might even say I miss baking more than I miss having a sink... I do complain a whole lot about washing dishes in the square bathtub that is occasionally used for dog baths, but there are plenty of remodeling scenarios that could be worse than this. With that said, I CANNOT wait for the day when a real, live dishwasher is installed in our new kitchen!!

Brick Piers and Uneven Floors

     As we're taking up old flooring to check on joists and replace subflooring, it became very obvious that our brick piers in the crawl space are in need of some repairs. The mortar needs to be repointed, and, in some cases, the bricks were completely loose. I had no prior masonry experience, so I did a little research and got some advice from a coworker (thanks, Travis!) before jumping into this - hopefully this is helpful to someone :)

Several bricks off the top here were totally loose!