Where the Hardwood Ends

My biggest dilemma so far has been how to save the kitchen hardwood floor.

In the photo, you can see where the original house ended 

and the new house began.

So far, the consensus was that the floor joists in the newer section

were higher than the original joists to make the subfloor even

with the hardwood.

This meant that no new hardwood could be added

because any new floor would not be even with the existing floor.

We had plans to cover the floor with tile, 

but I just couldn't bear to do it.

However, I'm now 99% sure that the consensus is wrong.

We noticed that the bathroom floor is lower than the kitchen floor.

Both are part of the newer section

and if the joists had been made to be higher, the bathroom floor should be the same height

as the kitchen floor.

So I did some poking in the basement, 

and I'm pretty sure

(with my limited know-how) 

that the joists are even and the plywood was added so linoleum could be laid over the hardwood.

This means that we can keep the hardwood we have

 and add hardwood to the newer section to make one big hardwood floor.

I won't know for sure until we pull up the plywood to have a look,

but I'm hopeful!

Welcome Igor

This is Igor, a Russian Tortoise and a new addition to my little menagerie I like to refer to as The Zoo.  He doesn't live on the farm with the chickens, of course.  Currently, he's living in our Cub Scout Pack's Scout Room where the scouts are observing him for one of their awards. Once they are done with their observations, Igor comes and lives with me at our place.  The hubby is thrilled.  The son is thrilled.
I have discovered that Russian Tortoises are very entertaining and smart.  Prior to going to live in the scout room, Igor lived in my son's room where he (Igor) enjoyed watching TV. The minute my son turned it on, Igor would make his way down to that end of the terrarium and stand there watching.  He also recognized my voice, and when he would hear me enter the room, he would come to the side of the terrarium, climb on his log and stretch his neck out for a scratch.  He's not cuddly like a dog, but he's pretty cool just the same.