Just What are we Doing, Anyway?

Pretty light day today. We took several field trips: twice to the dump, which is this nice big barn-looking building with a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign on it, and once to the millwork to pick up four new sills. I figured I'd take this opportunity to explain what exactly it is we're working on here. For anyone who's done this kind of construction before, please forgive the "baby talk." I, however, am learning many of these terms for the very first time (thanks to Shawn and his massive amounts of research) so I'm going to start with the very, very, v-e-r-y basics.

The house is a 104-year-old balloon-frame structure. Actually, part of it is. We're not positive which part, but we think it's the front. See, before building permits and codes enforcement inspectors came along, people added whatever they wanted wherever they wanted. So what we're really doing is an archaeological dig. Let's start with what a balloon frame structure even is:

First, a basement or crawl space is dug and a concrete/concrete block/red brick/stone foundation is built. In our case, some parts of the house had a red brick foundation (not very deep) some have a poured cement foundation, some had NO foundation anymore. If all the metaphors about good foundations being important to relationships, businesses, and society are right, you'd better believe a literal founDAtion is imPORtant to a HOUSE!! It's where all the weight rests! Anyhoo....

Then the mud sills (good, thick solid oak 6x6s or 4x6s, in our case) are placed on the foundation. These should be bolted down--ours weren't. Furthermore, termites can do a lot of work, even to oak, in 104 years. Some of our sills looked okay at first, come to find out that they were hollowed out like manicotti. A good, new foundation's no good if it's holding up rotted out sills. Also, to we need to lift this house up in midair (as the guys at Brothers Builders in Ontario did) while we replace the foundation under it. Can't hold it up with rotted sills. So solid mud sills are a major part of this job.

The wall studs should be a familiar part of the house to anyone who's tried to hang a heavy picture. In a balloon frame, these studs hold up the interior walls, the exterior walls and siding, the second story, the attic, and the entire roof. They don't hold up the floors, nor does the floor hold up the walls. So we can rip out all our flooring, including the floor joists, in any first floor room and not bother the structure of the rest of the house. The walls we have to be careful of.

We're lucky here: these sturdy oak studs, despite being over a century old, are what make the house worth saving. If we can fix the foundation below them, they'll hold the house up for a century longer. Everything else becomes relatively minor if this skeleton is good. Someday we'll rip down the rest of the interior walls, re-drywall, and paint them. Someday, we'll rip off the roofing (some metal, some asphalt) and replace it with new shingles. Someday, we'll take out the bathtub and...well... I could "someday" this house all night.

Tomorrow (or Wednesday), we'll see what condition our sills are really in. And then we'll begin!