Yesterday

All my troubles seemed, well, to be under the floorboards to be precise. When we moved in, in May 06, the removal men plonked the old Joanna on the floor in the corner, and the leg sank, rather ungraceously I thought, through the floorboard. Then, a couple of months ago someone sat on the sofa in the window bay, and the one leg sank through another floorboard. Clearly our floorboards had issues bearing weight. Something needed to be done.

On Monday I spent a sleepless night worrying about dry rot and large white fruiting bodies and strands that can reach 12ft in length, each one capable of setting up a new site of infection.

Because yesterday was the day.

This as easily the biggest DIY job I have yet undertaken. Not perhaps in scale, garden fences being somewhat larger, but in importance.

I pulled up and trimmed the rotting ends off 11 floorboards. I discarded one whole joist, moved another, cut out the rotten ends of the sub-frame and replaced the whole lot. It may not seem much to you experienced artisans, but to me it was a major job, satisfactorily completed and for a total cost below £50. Estimates are between £500 and £600.

And it looks great.

It's all up again today as the electrician puts in new sockets, but yesterday as I stood in the bay window on the new floor I had made, from the ground up, for that moment I felt worthwhile. And it was a nice feeling.