Sunday, December 17, 2006

Secret crawlspace entrance

One of my upcoming projects is to repair the 'built-in' in our hallway. It's a pretty standard bungalow style built-in, with 4 drawers on the bottom, and a door opening on the top with shelves inside. None of the drawers slide properly, and I'm planning on adding rolling drawer-glides to each drawer. I know, I know, all you purists out there are saying 'no! repair and restore it to its original style!'. But I'm of the overall mindset that if something allows itself to be updated with a modern convenience, and still maintains its' original appearance, what's the harm? Especially if it significantly improves the usability. If you still don't agree, all I can say is 'you'll see'.
Anyway, when I was investigating the built-in the other day, I pulled out the bottom
drawer and found myself looking at the crawl space under the house. Someone (he) had put a LARGE (18" diameter) hole in the floor [I'm guessing] when the furnace was installed before we moved in. They (he) probably just needed a way to access and support it from the top when they were (he was) installing it (?). This is probably a good time to mention the nickname we've given to the guy who owned the house before us-- "Half-assed H------" (I don't want to say his last name, although I WILL say it begins with an H, and the nickname as a whole has a really nice ring to it). I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy, but everything he did to the house is completely half-assed.