floors, subfloors, and the great depths

Well, yesterday (Saturday) did not go at all as planned! The good news first: I had time (with help from Joe, Michael, and late at night April) to paint more on the bedrooms. All were primed, but now the ceiling in two are painted and the walls in two are painted. The one with both the ceiling and walls painted is my favorite so far. (The colors don't look the same in the pictures, you'll just have to come see it!)

Now the less-good news: We planned to replace a couple pieces of plywood (I think this is technically subfloor, though there are diagonal pieces - 2 x 6's? - under it) that were rotting and gave a little when you stepped on them. When we got to one of those pieces, the floor under that still gave if you just looked at it funny. So my uncle went under the house. This part of the house is very old pier and beam. There is probably between 12 and 14 inches between the flooring and the dirt. You can't crawl under the house, you must squirm on your belly. God bless my uncle and mom for getting under there.

my Uncle Carl sawing old plywood (plus lots of dust)

I'll just some of the highlights of things that they needed to stop and fix to prevent problems later. That area that gave way was about four foot of the ends of many boards that were not supported underneath. This was also the area we planned to put my huge piano, so we're really glad this problem was found. There were some weird water line problems, some of which we fixed. There's a water pipe that has a fairly strong electrical charge to it (Uncle Carl had fun discovering that); there was a water line that was clamped off with pliers or something that is bound to eventually leak; there was a outdoor faucet (water hose hookup) that only has hot water going to it; finally, there was a water line for the fridge coming up in the pantry floor (we knew about this and planned to change it ahead of time). Towards the end of the day they found another support issue. I'm shaky on what exactly is wrong between the two living area sections, but I know it was originally not level and when fixing that, they found some problem. My parents and uncle were pretty much dealing with all these issues while I was like "ooo - A nail hole! I can fix that!"

The short story is that we didn't nail down any wood yesterday, but I did get a picture of a little laid out in the dining area. It's 3/4" thick solid cherry birch - very nice!
There has been tons of dust (from the texture and drywall) and sawdust in the air, and despite them wearing masks, my dad and Joe have gotten somewhat sick because of it. My mom and uncle went over to get started on the house early this morning (only woke me up to get keys), and my dad and Joe are in a antihistamine-induced sleep. So you have them to thank for me having time to update! I guess I'll head over there soon and get painting... master bedroom walls are next, and I'm excited to see the color on the walls!

Ending on another positive note, we had a fabulous lunch! April, Valerie, Krista and Heather made delicious turkey pot pies, brownies, watermelon and lemonade for our lunch. It was very tasty, and a welcome departure from eating out. Thank you ladies so much for cooking for us! We get to look forward to eating it again today.