The mold problem notwithstanding, things are definitely improving here in the country. Although it was 16 degrees this morning, they went ahead and spray-foamed the other half of our roof. We will no longer have to sleep with just the tops of our heads poking out from under the covers, like you do when you’re camping and it gets cold at night.

Our builders found another interesting aspect to our house as they built up the structure of our south-facing roof – sagging floors! Apparently, the hallway wall on the first floor of our house, which is a load-bearing wall for the roof line, was only supported by a couple of 2×4’s. Is it just me or is this nuts?

Ugga-ugga…me caveman….build house….ugga!

The picture to the right is a drawing they found on one of the studs when they ripped the sheetrock off the hallway wall in order to improve the support by adding a bunch of 2×4’s. We had been joking a few days before that the original builder probably wrote the building plans on a napkin, and we weren’t far off! This caveman drawing probably represents the entire scope of thinking about how to build the main support of the house. It was almost too funny to believe. It’s like being in a museum and trying to figure out what primitive man was thinking.

So, the boys jacked up the floor from underneath the house, adding 6×6 beams under there to support the area that was sagging. Lo and behold – the two doors in our downstairs bathroom now close properly! Our future guests will enjoy that feature. The main benefit was that the roof line is now only about an inch off from one end to the other instead of almost three inches. The floor on the second story that was also sagging is now level. Luckily, this only set them back two days so they were still able to finish the new roof structure for spray-foamers.

Who knows what else the boys will find as they go through the house? We’re certainly glad they are looking at everything with a critical eye, though. We had a small leak in the bedroom ceiling during an all-night rainstorm, and when they opened the wall to check for damage and pooling water they found….you guessed it – mold! The mold was only on the fiberglass insulation, though, so they just pulled it out all around the loft and spray-foamed.  When they’re done with the spray foam we’ll be able to light a match to get the house warm! We’ll eventually have them check all the walls for mold and then spray-foam them.

For now, we’re looking forward to a Christmas with a cozy, watertight roof, no mold and no banging noises!