Bring down the house

We brought down the house on Saturday. 

The young people from our church stopped by the Cookie House on their progressive dinner. We fed them bread, butter and strawberry jam.

While they were helping themselves to slices of bread and watching Mennonite TV, the house suddenly lurched. There was a thud and I felt the floor sway beneath me.

A couple of us rushed to the basement. The previous owners had installed a metal support reaching from the basement floor to the floor joists, to help hold up the floor upstairs. While the house was unoccupied, the basement flooded. The water rusted the metal support and it finally gave way sending our visitors on a bit of a ride. 

Upstairs there's nothing noticeably different and we have plans to install a new support, this time on blocks or treated lumber. Until then, though, I've outlawed jumping jacks in the living room.