Fixing Problems

Well, we went in today with the intention of laying the rest of the six foot floor joists where the old baptistry used to be. When we began figuring out the strategy to lay them, we found out that one corner of the building was very rotted. As I mentioned in the "Quick Facts" post, the building was built in the late 1890's and then the basement was put underneath it in 1928. In order to dig the basement they had to dig a hole at the back of the building and then started digging in (picture a cave). Once they had the basement dug they decided to leave the hole that they used to get started and build an additional room above it off of the back of the sanctuary. While the folks that put the basement in were obviously professionals, we get the feeling that the back room was built by the Saturday church volunteer team. When connecting the "addition" to the building they didn't do it right and water seeped in the corner over the years leaving a rather nice mushy mess for us to fix. There are many more problems with the "Choir Room" as well... some we will be able to fix (by the end of the project it will basically get all new outside walls) and some of the problems we will just have to deal with.

The good news is we have a plan, the bad news is that by the time we got it the lumber company was closed for the day. So we spent the rest of our day getting the other area where the floor joists will sit ready. We cleared out the bottom of the arch so the new floor joists will be able to sit on the beam. We also pulled up some flooring that was in the way and laid down the base plate of the new mini support wall.

Pictures:

#1 The rotted corner

#2 The bottom of the arch is clean and clear, ready for floor joists

#3 The brown board on the beam is the base plate of the next mini support wall