So, what did Tyler do for his birthday weekend? He demolished the old stairs. For most of you, that probably doesn't sound like much of a present. But, considering how long it has been since Tyler first wanted to take them down he was more than excited to finally have the opportunity to do so.

While demolishing the stairs, we found evidence of why the ceiling in the kitchen had been starting to crack. At some point, a portion of the load bearing wall that use to run through the kitchen was removed. To compensate for this, the original floor joists were toe-nailed into a 2x8 board. Over time, the ends of the joists toe nailed into this board began to sag. This was creating a crack in the kitchen ceiling and a high spot in the subfloor next to the old stairs. The following pictures show the evidence we found.

After Tyler finished removing the old stairs, what was the next step? Sealing up the hole! And, what's the easiest way to do that? Open a hole in the side of the house, of course. Yup, in the middle of winter Tyler and I opened a 2' x 12' hole in the side of the house so we could slide some new floor joists into place. And, what's the best part of this? I caught Tyler in the act of giving me his disgusted 'would you get over here and help me' look. Now, with a face like this who wouldn't want to rush to his aide?

The following photos show the before and after shots of the floor joists and subfloor.