Even with a comfortable Shop, Winter seems to curtail Woodworking Projects... But I have not been altogether idle... Various little "Problems" exist in any Old House, and lately I've spent some time pecking away at the List... Our Up-stairs, Back Bedroom had been almost completely re-modeled before we moved in... Nice Built-in Drawers and Shelves, heavily insulated behind it... But when they started the Closet in the Room, for some reason the Work was abandoned... Some time was taken, finally, to move this along a little! The major issue was the Floor... Using a Circular Saw and one of those handy Utility Saws, the Edge was brought into focus first... The Gaps in the Sub-Floor were then filled... There was Material Left-over from when I floored the Sun Room and Kitchen, Engineered Hickory Flooring, plenty to cover this little area... A Rod for hanging Clothes and a threshold were added, along with some Pre-finished Wood for Baseboard... It still needs a little mudding and sanding, and the molding around the top Bay needs re-configuring, but it is a step in the right direction...
Shifting Gears, the Last of the Basement Work was addressed... One Last, Old Floor Joist needed removal (It is the Last One that had Bug Damage) I hung two Joist Hangers on either side of it, and when my Stepson Jeff stopped by he gave me a hand installing one of the "Sister" Joists... The middle of the Damaged Beam was propped up in place... First one side was whittled and gnawed and scratched out... Then the other side got taken down... That was left that way until Jeff came by to help again, putting up the second "Sister" Joist... Thanks Jeff!! After the second Joist was in place, it was very easy to knock out the Prop, and pry at either end of the Middle section and drop it down... One of the ends was saved... Though much of the Old Beam was crumbling, some of it was still fairly solid... If I can figure a way to saw a bit of Lumber out of it, I'm thinking the Bugs likely made some interesting Grain in that Wood after their 126 Years of "Work".... I'm thinking of a Box made from it, to store all the House Papers in?
Lastly, I have Plans over Time to re-model our Downstairs Bathroom... It is a Tiny Room, almost completely devoid of Shelves and Storage Space... The Space over the Toilet was free, but there isn't enough room for a free-standing unit... So instead, I opted to build some quick Corner Shelves... Brackets were made ready first, by sawing down some construction 2-By... When I was cleaning out the way-down, half-cellar in this Old Ramble, an old bit of 3/4" Barnboard was found, just shy of 10' long X 11" wide! It is almost certainly from when one of the additions to this Old House were added... Hating to waste, and inclined to return materials back to where it comes from, the Barnboard was cut and used for shelves... The Shelving is not yet screwed down, the tops still need to be painted, but you can see the idea...
Anyway, the Weather is warming up here which is always a good thing... Maybe they'll be some opportunity for Fun instead of all this lousy Home Work!!?
14 March 2026
Mike, in Concord, NH - A candle loses none of its flame by lighting another candle...
SG: Though it sounds like a guesstimate, records show that Our House was originally built in the year 1900... It was a Tiny House to begin with, and was added on to almost right away, around 1915-1920ish? When we first moved in there was a lady in her 90's living next to us... We only got a chance to speak to her once before she was moved to a nursing home, but she had lived in her home since 1955!... Alice said for many years our home had a massive, screened-in porch on two sides of it, that also had a large, built-in fireplace right "in" the porch... She said it was the envy of the neighborhood and was the site of much racous revelry! Having seen the construction, it looks like that porch was closed in and off into what is now our Sun Room and our Downstairs Bedroom sometime in the 1970's... It's that part of the house that has a half cellar and dirt floor... From the curb, the house still looks small, but it is surprisingly "deep", because it rambles away from the Street... Pottz: I do have Fun working on the house too, you're right! I was just trying to be 'clever', something I'm woefully inadequate being... Many of the "problems" I've encountered here are real head-scratchers though, like, "Why the hell did they do it like that?!!" Especially since much of the work was done a long time ago, when Common Sense was generally more Common?? But there is satisfaction in fixing the issues, once and for all (Of course, it doesn't hurt the value of our home either!)
Mike, in Concord, NH - A candle loses none of its flame by lighting another candle...
looks like nice progress I assume you treated the timbers before refitting Keep up the good work and it will return to the most envied house in the street again
My house is a little younger than yours built in the early 1920s. So there's updating but they built them to last back then. I don't have the big timber joists but some are in rough shape. It's a good way to keep busy during the winter time.
Corelz 125 : My Parent's house was built around 1920, had all the ACTUAL 2" framing lumber used... Good, heavy bones in the old houses! This one is still remarkably solid and level for its age... It had bugs or beetles or termites (or something) busy here in several places apparently for years, but there's nothing alive now??? I have replaced all of the chewed up areas and will watch and hope that they no longer find this house tasty
Mike, in Concord, NH - A candle loses none of its flame by lighting another candle...
Yup the old lumber that's still there is the real 2"×4" rectangle. I have wood lathe and plaster walls no insulation anywhere but that plaster does a better job than sheetrock holding the heat in. I don't have many original windows left. Just a few in the basement. Windows were a weak point for the old houses. They weren't made to last.
