The foundation of things

Before anymore work could be done to the extension we needed to address some issues in the old part of the house first. The back portion of the house had a slanted roof, which was not to our liking at all. We wanted to remove this roof and replace it with a peaked roof that would blend with the new extension.

However in order to put a new roof on the entire house, we needed to make sure the the structure was sound. So in went the new ceiling beams/floor joists were put up in the kitchen. No more bouncing around when we walked up stairs.
The old staircase was removed, and the hole filled in. While it didn't look like much, to us this was allot of change.....in the right direction.




Meanwhile on the week-ends Neil and I would try and get some work done. We were lucky to have two sets of grandparents who loved watching Niamh.

On one sunny day, a week before the new roof was to go on Neil and I decided to finally remove the old flooring of the porch. Due to the rain we had left it in place so as we wouldn't have a muddy mess in front of the only door. Well we were in for quite a surprise when we lifted it up. For in front of our wondering eyes did appear but a giant hole in the foundation. Not just a hole, but half the foundation was missing along the side of the house. It seems that whom ever put in the plumbing, at some point in the history of our home, never rebuilt the foundation afterwards.

While poking around under the house we realised that the floor above in the kitchen didn't look too good. On closer inspection we found out that the whole corner of the kitchen, which is located above the missing foundation, was rotten. It took Neil all of two jumps on the wooden planks to break right through into the cellar.

This was not good news! We contacted our contractor right away who told us that we would have to get the foundation fixed ASAP other wise there was no way they would be able to put a new roof on. Easier said than done. Considering the foundation was built in 1912 it was all made out of field stone. We would need to find someone who specialised in building stone foundations. Do you know how hard it is to find a stone mason these days? We made a few calls and eventually we were directed to a gentlemen in the neighbouring town of Elgin. When we asked if he could do the job his first response was "How did you find me?" We knew this was not an easy job and were so happy when he was able to start the very next day. By Friday of that week the foundation was fixed, and looked better than ever. We called our contractor back and told him we were good to go. Happy with the news he told us the roof would be able to go up on Monday, however we would need to take the old roof off the day before.....a job he was leaving up to us.