Turning the corner, Part Two

While Saturday saw the last big demo project completed, today was wrap up day for all the little projects that needed done before the, "put it all back together" could begin. 

The first task was reinforcing, and in some cases replacing altogether, the termite-weakened floor joists in the back part of the house. There are no pictures of this, mostly because I've been the picture taker and I was crawling around on the floor during this job.

One of the many, "save that for later" jobs was taking out the gross header over the previous backdoor. Doing this allows for installation of a glorious oversized door from the Father-In-Law. More on that in future episodes. 

The Missus removed all the exterior siding in the future laundry room so it's now ready for drywall.

She also removed the old window and replaced it with studding so the kitchen can now shift to finishing.

And finally, FINALLY, I was able to shore up the back of the house and replace the wall. This is the wall where I first found the termite damage the very first day at the house. That thing has been staring me in the face for a whole month now... taunting me... teasing me... terrifying me. Well no more you evil wall. Now you're done. I win, you ugly bastard.

And just like that, the demo is done. There are two old supports that used to be nailed to the long gone living room ceiling joists, and once those are cut off there is no more demo to be done. Nothing left to tear out. No termite damage left to uncover. No walls left to push over. No saws to run or crowbars to hank or curse words to be said, nada. 

Now we rebuild. 

Turning the corner, Part One

This past week was our largest spending week, made possible with the purchase of new appliances and kitchen cabinets. And those purchases meant we had one last demo project, the kitchen.

Cabinets out, and then the floor. Unfortunately, the floor turned out to be a horrendously hard task. There were six total layers of flooring, every one of them with insane amounts of staples and brads and nails and glue. After some backbreaking work, we finally made it to the subfloor.

And guess what we found when we got there?

You guessed it, termite damage. 

After taking out the boards that needed replaced, it became apparent I would need to reinforce five or six floor joists that had also fell victim to this vile insect. And since that would require another trip to the lumber yard that I didn't have time enough left in the day to do, the Missus and I tackled a different task. 

Earlier in the week we'd met with some friends who own a business called Balsam Design, and they helped us finally get a handle on our scattered ideas for the kitchen. We settled on a layout, moved some things around, and probably the biggest thing, we decided the half wall we'd left when we vaulted the ceilings, was now going to move about a foot into the great room. This would allow for lots of things down the road, but the most important thing that did was allow me to create a sturdy anchor for the tall wall at the end of the house. Bring on the wind, this house isn't going anywhere. 

And last but not least, a friend came over and helped clean up the walls in the bathroom which means we're now ready for tile around the shower. And Alli spent a couple hours of backbreaking work clearing the floors for tile there. 

A long day, but we're almost there.

Laundry Room? Check.

One termite infested laundry room gone...

One new laundry room in it's place. 

This little room may not look like much, but it was a large task that took all of three days to complete. The large quantity of termite damage was the first issue, with the second being the attempt to engineer new construction onto the old house (which had loads of termite issues of its own). Those two things, along with two rookie construction workers (us), made for some interesting moments. But it's done and our house is now secure.

And here's a picture of a neighborhood cat who visits us every evening. Pretty sure it's hunting mice, which I'm definitely okay with. 

A day out of the office still means a day of work

Been a quiet week at the Fixer Upper. Lots of waiting for contractors, plans being made and then changed and then remade, lumber orders placed for a future pickup, and more behind the scenes stuff that seems like nothing is getting done when in reality so much is happening. And that's how it goes at the Beacon Fixer Upper, planning and then work and then planning and then work and on and on it goes.

 The first exciting news to share is our brand new metal roof that was installed yesterday. Hard to see it's much more than just grey metal, but when it's not a dreary winter day and the house is sporting new skin, we'll revisit the good looking roof.

I took a vacation day from the office because this weekend's task was a daunting one. The massively termite-infested laundry room needed to  removed and rebuilt. I knew the first part of the task, demo, would go quickly. And boy did it ever...

That massive pile of debris took all of twenty minutes to create, and I only almost died once. 

Now on to the rebuild. I had placed a lumber order earlier in the week and our friend Eric joined me to pick it up at Home Depot. Thank goodness another friend offered his friend Rusty, a perfectly aged Ford F-150, to pick it all up. I added some more lumber to the pile and a couple windows for the laundry room. Unfortunately, it took us over an hour to figure out to load so much wood and the door and windows. Worse than that, between our wasted time, the additional bungees and ratchet straps I purchased, and the gas I put in Rusty's tank, I found out I could have had it all delivered for $19.95. Facepalm. 

I wasn't able to start the rebuild due to more termite damage control, but I have tomorrow all planned out. Let's do this.