What lurks below.....

The area between the kitchen and front entrance has always been a little shaky, meaning that every time we walked or even just stepped on the floorboards it felt unstable. It is also the area that has our small fridge sitting directly on it, so we stopped procrastinating and started doing some investigating. We had to pull the old platform away that is in the kitchen so that we could take a good look from the side. 

It was the best thing we could have done because what we found was really unsafe. I know what you're thinking...the kitchen isn't looking too good. I agree...I plan on showing you great before photos in another posting. I affectionately call it, "The black hole."

            

             But back to the support joists that had been eaten away by termites.....

Once we pulled the side off, we flashed our torch underneath from the side, and again another unsafe situation. The support joists had fallen down completely on side and there was nothing holding up the floorboards!

So we rolled up our sleeves and started pulling up the floorboards. We joked about what we might find underneath or what unwanted guests we might discover, but in the end to our surprise we just found dirt, dust and not one creepy crawly! We also loved that the area was amazingly dry, since we have issues with flowing water as you know if you've read the blog from the beginning.

One by one each floor board was pulled up, and like I said, just dirt and nothing much else.

Look at this! Our fridge was sitting directly opposite to these support joists.

I know this isn't a good photograph, but can you see that the support post sits on a blob of concrete, which was how they did things in the day.  

We basically secured the support joists to the frame again with screws and all was well again in the little old farm house. 

I plan on giving the boards a sanding and gloss, but that it for another day. Off to the onsen to wash away the dirt and dust and recharge the muscles!