Snug and Cozy

A week ago this is how our kitchen looked.  Notice to the right, the hole in the floor.  That's my husband on his side to the left with his trusty sazzle (I think that's how it's spelled), as he cuts out rotten floor joists.  The floor inside the French Doors and surrounding areas were rotten and had to be replaced before we could have our new door installed. 

We had paid for "installation" when we bought our new door.  Sure, we could have put the door in ourselves but my husband didn't want to mess with it.  For a guy who can hang doors in his sleep, installation was a real treat.  However, installation didn't include repairing the damage from the previous doors so it was up to us to have everything repaired before our new door arrived.

This is how my kitchen looked "buttoned up" with plywood at night.  With the exception of a few evenings, this plywood came off to expose the kitchen so that we could get back at the floor.  We were fortunate to have very few days with rain this past week, which would have made the project more of a challenge.  This side of our house gets all the weather and we would have had rain coming into the kitchen.

With the door arriving first thing Saturday morning, the big push came this last Friday.  My husband took the day off and we both spent the day getting the floor project finished.  At 11PM, under flood lights and totally exhausted, we raised the sheets of plywood to cover the hole in the kitchen for the last time.

This is the results of our efforts.  How can I get so excited about a silly door?  Well, my floor no longer sags when I step on it.  I don't have to leave a towel down in front of the door whenever it rains.  I don't have to take a dinner knife and wedge towels between French Doors when it's cold outside, nor wedge steel wool into the door to keep rodents out.

Today the rain is pounding outside and 45mph winds are predicted.  I find after 25 years of marriage that the bond between my husband and I is as strong as it ever was.  The teamwork when we work on projects is still intact with that incredible intuition as we work together.  We are both proud of our efforts in this project.  As the rain hits against the new door we feel good in knowing our home snug and cozy.