Supporting ourselves

On one of our early evening visits downstairs we noticed a vital piece of the house was missing - one of the two supporting beams!

Upon closer inspection, we saw that a cunning contraption of two-by-fours had been set up to replicate temporary walls to hold up our house for the several days it took to amass enough man power to hoist the new beamwhich adds much needed height to the space. that we will be walking under daily. No dancing parties those days!

And where the old posts were are now great holes in the concrete.

But never fear, those 80 years old solid wood beam and posts will be reborn as new posts, albeit decorative ones on the edges of the new walls.

The concept of support in general is high on our minds this week, as we sit reading the newspaper or eating breakfast in the kitchen nook while under us we feel the thud and shudder of wood being pounded into place to support the new part of the room below. A thick beam now runs across the space, although you can still clearly see the difference between the ceiling under the kitchen nook and the ceiling under the back porch.

This new part used to be outside the house, under the back stairs. Tearing out the external wall revealed heavily rotted supports to our porch, so this is a timely project in more ways than cashing in on government incentives and avoiding future HST costs and - oh yeah - renovating a space long in need of it.

Just think - I could have walked out the back door some beautiful summer day to hang out my newly washed smalls on the laundry line only to plunge to certain leg fracture as the porch gave way under my healthy yet svelte body. Yikes, disaster averted!