I took the last three days to get control of the construction mess that had been accumulating for a while now. Not only did I need get organized again so that I could find my tools, but I also needed to clear out the mess so that I’ll have space to build the vanities and cabinet for the bathroom.
I got most everything cleared out and organized, but I’m still waiting for some walnut trim that I ordered to arrive (which should be here Thursday), so in the meantime, I started doing some work in the home gym.
The floor in this room is kind of a mess, and I’m not talking about the drywall dust and drywall mud that are all over the floor. That stuff can be cleaned up, so I’m not concerned about that. I’m talking about the actual flooring in this room.
For some reason, it appears that there’s no barrier between the hardwood flooring and the subfloor underneath in this room. In the rest of the house, there’s a layer of tar paper between the hardwood flooring and the subfloor to act as a vapor/moisture barrier. But for some reason, there’s no such barrier in this room.
The walls in this room were originally thick wood shiplap installed vertically.
The reason you can see daylight under the house is because there are vents around the perimeter that vent the crawl space, and there happens to be a vent right there that lets light in. But that just shows you how “leaky” this room is. I’m sure all of those gaps are just sucking our cold air conditioned air right out.
So the first order of business, after getting the room cleared out, was to use spray foam all around the edges. I used Loctite spray foam, which is much harder and denser than other brands that I’ve used in the past.
I went all around the two exterior walls in the room.
It took a while for it to completely expand, and then it took a couple more hours for it to fully harden.
Once it was completely solid, I used my most flexible knife and cut off the excess.
So at least that will stop our cold air conditioned air from being sucked right out of those gaps.
What’s interesting is that there was a very noticeable difference. While waiting for the spray foam to fully expand and harden, I left the room for a couple of hours, closing the door to the home gym behind me. When I returned to continue working, it was noticeable colder in that room. I was genuinely amazed at what a difference it made.
The other flooring problem area in this room is this one mystery hardwood floor board. I know I’ve shown y’all this before, but there’s one board that is being eaten away by something. And what is causing this is a complete mystery to me.
I looked back at the original pictures that I took of this room, and while this board had damage, it was nothing like what’s there now. Here’s what it looked like almost nine years ago…
And here’s what it looks like now. I could literally remove this board with my hands. No tools were needed.
I mean, it looks like an absolute mess. And while my first thought (years ago) was that it must be termites, I’ve literally never seen a single termite. Not only that, but the only thing affected is this one single floor board. Nothing else around it is affected.
I inspected the rest of the floor around it, and I found two more areas that seem to be affected, so I thought maybe whatever this is was spreading.
But nope. That’s the same board. It’s just a really long board, but it’s the same board.
Literally nothing else around it is affected. None of the other floor boards are affected, and the subfloor beneath this one affected board is perfectly fine. It’s the strangest thing. I have no explanation for it.
Anyway, I’m going to continue working in here for the next couple of days and see how much I can get done before that walnut lumber comes in on Thursday.
I can finish up the trim in here and get it all sanded, caulked and painted.
And then I still have this one door between the home gym and bathroom that needs to be trimmed out.
So this will be my project for the next couple of days. Hopefully I can get all of the trim finished, and then I can get started on the bathroom vanities and cabinet. At least now I have plenty of space cleared out to build those!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!
