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!!

     Here are the new joists in the former back porch. We gained 48 square feet by enclosing the awkward porch, and a French door will be added to the wall on the left of this photo for a more open feel in the room.

     In progress view of removing all the flooring from our former kitchen. We saved all the floor boards that were in good condition for later use, but unfortunately many were rotten, water damaged, or eaten by termites :( It was very obvious that spot repairs had been made here and there over time, so I'm really glad we took it all the way down.

     This afternoon, we finished removing all the old flooring and subflooring! We will have to sister new joists onto most of the ones you see here to deal with unlevel floor issues, then new subflooring will be coming up next :)