Rehabbing an Antique

Today I started the rehab on the downstairs bedroom of one of my OLD houses. In fact, this house is such an antique, the "date built" listed by the county auditor is simply "OLD". This house was certainly built in the 1800s and the downstairs bedroom was showing its age. The problem was that the floor is VERY soft and there were some signs of settling of the walls. This room adjoins a nice deck and while I'm rehabbing this room, I will also install a new door out to the deck.

I started the rehab by removing a small section of the floor to take a look. I was quite honestly shocked that there was virtually nothing below the floor. It was obvious that this bedroom started its existence as a porch. The floor was not connected to the walls in any way. There was also no foundation below the floor - only some old blocks and some old wood planks that had served as makeshift floor joists. These joists were touching the damp ground and were so rotted that you would literally crush them in your hand. I had hoped that much of the floor could be saved, but that was not the case. I therefore removed the entire floor and hauled it all to the dump.

There was a little good news. Although the walls have certainly settled some in the last 150 years, the rough sawn wood in the walls was very good and the rock foundation was in place. As with many old houses, this house was built in stages. The front of the house was the original house from the 1800s. This bedroom started out as a porch and was later enclosed and turned into a bedroom. In the 1900s, a kitchen was added onto the original house with a modern block foundation. Finally, in th 1990s, a second story addition was made above the downstairs bedroom and the kitchen. With our rehab of the downstairs bedroom floor, the house should be good for another 100 years!