This story begins at the threshold of frustration and relief!! (Actually the old kitchenette and the bathroom, but you know what I mean!) By this point, we'd had a chance to give the house a good going over and we were starting to make decisions on what we were going to tackle in regards to renovations. . . We had talked about moving doors and walls to create better flow within the room, we discussed moving the bathroom to the center of the room and making a HUGE bathroom area, you know, a bathroom so big that if you fell down, you wouldn't hit your head on anything, as well as who was going to go in what room!
But with all of the suggestions that had come and gone, there were a couple of issues that kept surfacing. . . why was there no heat coming from the two heating ducts in the floor and what the hell was under that section of the floor in front of the bathroom? That question had peaked our curiosity a number of times but we had neither the time nor the means to investigate, until one day, curiosity got the better of me. . .
You may have noticed in one of the first photos that we had posted, (see "Working in the old kitchenette", the second photo), there is a section of floor that has been replaced with plywood. The plywood was really uneven and higher than the original floor. I thought to myself, "This just won't do!" And since I am never one to argue with myself, I ripped up the floor! Oh, what a treasure I found!!
My first reaction to this fantastic find. . . HA HA HA HA!!! I couldn't believe what I was looking at and I still don't believe that people consider this type of work acceptable! I don't just mean to a building inspector or contractor, I mean to themselves!! 
Once again, it seems whoever worked on this house previously, didn't believe in letting anything go to waste and if that little piece of scrap wood fits in somewhere, that's where it was nailed!! There seems to be something hiding under there too. . . I'll get to that shortly. . .
Below, you will see a perfect example of what NOT to do with drywall compound!
Well, what do we have here?! It looks like. . . no. . . it couldn't be. . . IT IS!! That mess is supposed to be a heating duct! And don't tell me. . . yup, they used real duct tape for heating ducts!! WRONG!! Duct work is the only thing you can't use duct tape for!!"Well there's your problem!" Red Green, eat your heart out!
This is a photo of the mess at it's absolute worst but there were still more surprises lurking beneath the surface! As I cleared away the overabundance of crap, I noticed that there was something missing, something rather important. . . can you say, STRUCTURE?! I have no explanation as to why they would cut a four foot section of floor joist completely out! But I guess they needed something to fill in the hole after??
So, with this ever growing list, I have figured that in a six foot square section, besides a carpenter I have had to become a structural engineer, a plumber/HVAC technician and an electrician! Let's see how I made out, shall we? Fast forward a couple of days. . . the mess is cleaned up, I have built a new, more efficient heating duct for the space that I had to work with, I have restructured the floor joists and installed a good insulation around the heating lines. Booyah!
We have since finished the floor in the bathroom, as seen in previous posts, and the old cabinets have been replaced with a full width structure that hides the plumbing and gaping holes in the floor which will be used as a shelf for books and plants, and cats. . . and an occasional Meghan! It will sit slightly lower than the back of the couch and I think, will add more character to the room!
Keep checking back, we will try to update the blog as soon as we can! Until next time, Cheers!!
