Sayonara beautiful, re-useable hardwood

This weekend we ripped up the hardwood in the kitchen downstairs. This is step one in determining how to plumb a new kitchen sink, which is the bare minimum we need to function going forward. A kitchen sink, and a place to plug in our portable dishwasher because I hate doing dishes.

Before:


After demo:



The hardwood is at least one inch thick, and completely re-useable. I'm very excited, it was a large area and the cost savings will be substantial. Removal of the hardwood was just one of the many things we need to do before insulating the walls:
1. extend jog to accommodate kitchen cabinets. This requires replacing the sill under the wall. A sill is a large piece of timber in older homes that sits on the stone foundation, bearing the weight of the studs running (sometimes) two floors up. This substantial piece of wood is usually at least 8 inches by 8 inches, and for our house at least, there two side by side sitting on our foundation wall. Lucky for us, a farmer friend had a fourteen foot sill that we could use, so we've replace the one behind this plastic tarp with the longer one. It makes me happy we are incorporating gifts (a timber like that could cost thousands of dollars) from long-time family friends into the renovation of this old house.



Pulling the wall away while we work:


2 A close-up reveals one of the few places we've found rotten wood. The jagged gash running parallel to the window is damage caused by water from the improperly installed roof to the pantry. Our building inspector told us to expect it, so no surprises. We need to expand that wall to run along the new sill, so the location is at least somewhat fortuitous because we can just start our addition ten inches closer to the window.
3. Empty out the cistern below the floor. The cover to the giant pit of water is visible in one of the above kitchen photos, surrounded in orange paint. We just need to get a sump pump and some time.

4. Jack up floor in current kitchen to match level sill. There is a noticeable lean to the entire room so if we are going to fix it - better now then later.

5 .Plumb sink to the new location. Dismantle old leaky sink and corner cabinet.

6. Remove plaster from walls in the current kitchen. Dirty job.

7. Demo the pantry room, replace with a patio door. The window needs to be moved too.

There are other jobs too, but these ones will keep us busy for a few weekends at least. (!)