Starting at the bottom… sort of.

Well, we’ve been working on this place for just a little more than a week and here’s some of what we’ve discovered so far. (I will post pics when I download them off the camera)

1- The floor in the living room does indeed slant toward the outside. At first I thought we had discovered the Rummer Vortex, but it seems that the ground under the chimney has settled about 2 inches, bringing the back part of the house down with it. Our home inspector noticed it but was at a loss: there’re no foundation cracks, no rotten beams, no visible evidence of settling. In fact, he went as far as to suggest that maybe the builder messed up and just measured things wrong. In any case, we’re hoping that when the room is filled with furniture and an area rug or two, the tilt won’t be noticeable.

2- As you may have read in Haley’s posts, there were water stains (and some mold) on the particle board sub floor, mostly on the back perimeter. I’ve since pulled up all the icky, crumbly sub floor and the floorboards are all dry and just fine— except for one small section in the living room with issues. One floorboard, has about 24-inches worth of dry rot. The beams under it are fine and there is a new sill plate on top of it,* I’m going to mix up some two part epoxy and fill in the rot with space age polymers. (Git Rot + capillary action = solid floorboard)

*Although the roof has been replaced within the last year, there was some damage caused when it was leaking. They replaced some floorboards in the master bedroom and damaged sheetrock and framing in the master and living rooms, but didn’t crack open the living room floor to fix the floorboard rot I found.

3- We’re going to need to put in a beam between the hallway and the atrium. It looked like there would be one there, but there wasn’t. In order to glass in that wall, there needs to be a beam. I’ll let the contractor take on that job.

I’ve also discovered that I’m not 18 anymore. I feel like I was used as a punching bag and have lost count of all the little nicks and cuts on my arms and hands.