Home Ownership: not all it’s "cracked" up to be

James Thorpe, a famous athlete (football and track) once said “household tasks are easier and quicker when they are done by somebody else.”

And that is the case with leveling out the pier and beam foundations that is holding up your floors. This is not (contrary to what French thinks) something we can do ourselves. We hired Centex (the most well-known leveling company in Austin) to do the dirty work. The said they would take 5-7 business days to do it. They started on Thursday (last week) and you can understand my surprise when I arrived there on my lunch hour and they told me they were done.

Finished, finito. Completed, gone. Sionara!

They were supposed to be done Friday at the earliest! So I went in and looked around – they are pretty much done…but tonight I went back and looked a lot closer and there is still a bit of work to be done. So I will be calling them and having them back over tomorrow.

But, so far here are the photos...

Mom’s yard work covered in dirt.

Cracks over front door – cracking is normal they just shifted the whole house so there is bound to be tension and shifting cracks and settling.

More cracks in the kitchen (these appear to be the worst).

Master bedroom
Living room (can you find the missing joist?)
Hallway - see the how the joist sticks up an inch higher then the othe joists (going the other way?)
Better shot of the difference from the hallway to the living room.
The front bedroom.

Next up this weekend: remove the trim, put down plastic moisture protector, new sub-flooring (plywood), tape and seal up the cracks in the drywall, texturize the walls, prep/tape the whole house, and then start paining.

Yowzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzer!!