Back with a vengeance after our whirlwind trip to New York. Greg and I decided to tackle the "soft corner" of the house where there wasn't enough support for the large beam that takes the place of the old outer wall of the original house. I took us awhile to figure out the best way to go about it. After much hemming and hawing and a few calls to our resident consultant contractor, we went and borrowed jacks and heavy wood scraps and we were going to jack the beam to get it level (it was 3/8" off on the rear right corner of the house). But first came the support post in the basement: a 102" long 6 x 6" pressure treated support post that would sit on a concrete pill and get whacked into place underneath the unsupported wall on the first floor.

You can see in the photo below that the post goes right up through a long homemade bench that was in the house already. What strikes me as funny is that where it counts, the house is underbuilt, but in cases like this shelf, there are five support brackets underneath the shelf, each having 6 stripped screws anchoring the shelf. There was no way that I could remove the shelf and not take all day doing it, so I simply cut out a space for the support beam. I love bashing stuff, so it was my pleasure to wield a sledgehammer over my head to whack this beam into place. We cut it a 1/2" taller than it needed to be and after a bit of whacking the top into place and then whacking the concrete pill back a few inches, and some leveling out here and there, the damn thing was in place.....and I needed to go lie down!!!

Then we went upstairs to get the jack in place, and low and behold, the house has stopped shaking and the beam was spot on level. We had raised the sagging floor enough on the first floor to bring the whole damn thing in-line. This was a HUGE impediment to me mentally, for one part of me thought that we were going to have this shaky house to rent out. I was euphoric! Greg and I had debated back and forth about the best way to try and do this project and in the end, I think each one of us contributed out bit and we ended up not having to take the next step of jacking and shimming.

As well as putting the post in downstairs, Greg redid the support post on the first floor to correct the flawed support underneath the large beam. Originally, the beam sat squarely on a header with two 2 x 6" boards sistered together on either side, making up a support post. Naturally, these 2 x 6" supports bowed out because the weight of the overhead beam (carrying the weight of the back half of the second floor) was not directly supported overhead. Now, there is one solid support post directly under the overhead beam, which corrected the improper deflection of the beam above. (I think)

Phew! Today I am going over to contemplate taking out some of the old windows in prep for the new ones!