Entry Sub-Floor

Two weeks ago our front entry received a sub-floor.

It's sad how exciting that statement is.

Right before we bought the house, we noticed that the floor was rotting out of one of the entry closets. Termite damage it appeared.

We decided to forgo most of the typical inspections for buying a home since so many of the systems would be replaced anyways. We did decide to get the termite inspection to verify how bad the damage we saw in the closet was and how far it had spread.

Ninety-five dollars later, we didn't have termites or termite damage anywhere in the house. The damage we saw in the closet was all water damage from an old leaky flat roof. Since we were replacing the roof, we knew we could remedy the situation.

This meant that when it came time for construction we'd have to lose the floors in the closets to be able to put new ones down. Which turned into getting rid of the closets entirely. Which turned into getting rid of the tile entry between the closets. Which turned into, which turned into, until we were left with this:

 

Because of the damage to the floors and joists we decided to laminate some of the floor joists with sister members in order have a stable piece of wood to nail our new subfloor into.



 

We then added a couple of plywood strips at each door to keep the subfloor from bowing in at the first point of contact.

 

After we laid the first sheet of plywood, we pulled it back out, made a template for the air supply, using a jigsaw cut it out from the subfloor and laid it back down for a (perfect) test fit.

 

We trimmed down the second piece of plywood, carried it inside and by the end of the day had our new, level sub-floor.

 

Each bathroom will receive a new subfloor after we have re-routed the plumbing (hopefully soon). And those rooms, along with this room will receive new tile floors.

I love that we have an entry. A place to remove our wet shoes and snowy boots, our muddy work shoes. I've spent time looking at entry and vestibule images on the web and on pinterest. Pinning console tables and lights. I love not walking straight into someone's living room but rather just having a place to enter. A room that (when muddy boots are put away) our guests get welcomed into our home. The starting point for the entire sha-bang.

And so the design pressure builds.