Shed a little light under the Nook

Carpenter ants. Lots of them. Hungry little buggers ate over half of a corner 6x6" post.

When the house was built in 1927-8, the kitchen nook and deck were set on tiny little blocks of concrete. The house settled and the blocks became burried. We think one owner kept his dog(s) underneath because one of the 2x4s looks like it was chewed away. No insualtion so it's really cold eating breakfast in the cold winter mornings. Also, it was very dark under there and if we were going to use it as a shed, we needed some light!


First things first though... rebuild the footings and replace the eaten beams. It seemed like a fairly easy job- until we realized that we should probably try to level the back of the house where it settled the most before we replaced the beams- I'll write about the levelling another day.

Once the house was a wee bit more level, Derek used a couple posts to support the nook and deck. Luckily, the nook was cantilevered, and as it turned out was supporting itself because the posts were doing nothing what-so-ever. He dug some more (this after a whole summer of digging for the retaining wall), built the forms, and had his Dad, Richard, help with the mixing and pouring of the foundation.





Now that the foundation is laid and the beams are replaced, the nook shouldn't sag any more. Yay! A light and switch was put in and the door went back on the other day. The next step: pouring the concrete floor. I think we'll wait until the spring to tackle that one...