Stability is good

We live in a piling house. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, a piling house is built on top of 10"x10" wooden pilings driven 15-25' into the ground. There is 9' of space under the house providing space to park our cars and where we have a large screened area. This is the first time we've lived in a piling house, and something we didn't anticipate was the amount of movement that can be felt inside the house. When the washing machine starts its spin cycle, the house does a little shimmy. When Hurricane Wilma came through last year, the whole house shuddered and shook, making an uncomfortable experience even worse. So, to reduce the amount of movement, the pilings can be braced. We have installed cross-braces on several sets of pilings, and today we finished installing the last planned set of cross-braces. Here's what the front now looks like: You can see the little aluminum trailer we got for the Golf, as well as another set of cross-braces near the middle of the house. Here's what the side braces look like: The biggest drawback of the braces is their appearance. To alleviate the eyesoreness, we will be installing lattice over the braces, as we've done on some other braces: The nice thing about the lattice is it provides some privacy and still lets the air flow through. Not everyone thinks it looks good, but we think it's better than the cross-braces, and it is a common element in island decor. So, we've got part of this major project done. The next step is installing the rest of the lattice. Thankfully, we've got the trailer, so we can haul the 4x8 sheets of lattice, along with the 2x4's we'll need.