It all started with...

the kitchen floor.

Yup. That darn kitchen floor started this whole thing.

Because to figure out what was going on with our floor meant {someone} had to crawl underneath our house.

Many {someones} in fact.

Who {someones} you ask?

5 HVAC guys,
4 Plumbers,
3 General Contractors,
2 State Inspectors, 2 City Inspectors, 2 Structural Engineers, 2 Electricians, 2 gas company men and...
1 husband.

I kid you not.

And what did they find, you ask?

Let me recap things here:

1 tipped pier, 1 sinking original wood burning chimney resulting in 1 sinking house, detached rafters from 1 valley rafter, and 1 leaky dishwasher.

many {many} improperly installed elements of our HVAC system, deteriorating duct work, a super cool crawlspace under a hot humid house and...

a partridge in a pear tree

i mean, mold.

oh, and several gas leaks.

{argh}

This is now {finally} resulting in:

a new kitchen floor, a new kitchen ceiling, a new hall ceiling, a new pantry/reworked laundry area, a new laundry area in our bathroom

at least 5 new {foundation} piers, a reattached/now braced set of rafters

and a fairly in-depth reworked kitchen.

you know, since we're going to have to live here for the next 20 years to pay all this off we might as well update the kitchen in the mess!

So I managed to take a few pictures before construction got underway. 

Of a few cracks...

And gaps...

A few very crooked doorways...

And completely missing floor/ceiling coverings.

Then there's the tipped pier on the corner of the house that's pulling our house in one direction, causing many cracks, gaps, tilted floors, and all around destruction!

And to think that first structural engineer said there was nothing wrong with our house structurally! 

BUT it's all changing on a daily semi-daily basis! You know, because there are rain delays and sub-contractor delays and delays because of the delays.

There will be more pictures to come...many more pictures to come! :)