*sigh*...dry rot

Dry rot refers to the decay of timber in buildings and other wooden structures caused by certain fungi.

The term is most commonly used in reference to the decay of building timbers. It refers to damage inflicted by either: Serpula lacrymans (formerly Merulius lacrymans) predominantly in the United Kingdom and northern Europe; and/or Meruliporia incrassata (which has a number of synonyms, including Poria incrassata and Serpula incrassata) in North America. Both species of fungus cause brown rot decay, preferentially removing cellulose and hemicellulose from the timber leaving a brittle matrix of modified lignin. Eventually the decay can cause instability and collapse in houses, wooden ships' hulls, and other wooden structures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_rot

i've had volleyball tournaments the last three weekends in a row, so we haven't done any work on my house for a while. today it was a gorgeous, sunny, warm, spring day in seattle...my apple tree is beginning to sprout some leaves!


my awesome parents went to my house on friday and ripped out the toilet, sink, and wood paneling in the bathroom...and uncovered more awesome wallpaper! : ) i really, really hope that at some point, ALL of these awesome wallpapers were visible at the same time...hahaha...


i hired 2 workers from casa latina - www.casa-latina.org - ricardo and abner. they were SO amazing! they tore out the concrete steps and finished gutting the ENTIRE house in only 6 hours! (this pic is looking from the kitchen through the bathroom into the back bedroom/office!)


we started work on the back (kitchen) door again. while replacing the door a few months back, we found that the concrete steps were poured right up against the house, so the wood was rotted. today we took the door back out, took off some of the siding, and replaced the sill plate (the treated 2x4 that sits right on top of the foundation).


there was also termite damage on the sheathing. luckily the termites in washington are wet-wood termintes. meaning that they only eat wood that is already wet and rotted as opposed to dry-wood termintes like they have in the south that will eat the whole house. yeah, luckily.


we ran out of time today, but will have to scab on some new beams to the floor joices. all-in-all it was a GREAT day and we accomplished a TON!

"vacation"

last week i took 2 and a half vactaion days - tuesday, wednesday, and thursday morning - to work on my house. i had grandiose (yet thoughtfully realistic) plans to complete the tearing out of any and all drywall in the house.

you know what they say about good intentions...i got the kitchen done. ugh.



i pretty much gave up on wednesday afternoon when i got to the living room and found that there is actually TWO layers of drywall...double the fun!



i had an estimte for a new heat pump on thursday morning and ended up running errands the rest of the day.

while i really do enjoy this kind of work, i've decided that it's not a whole lot of fun working by myself. i really missed having my parents at the house with me. they're so fantastic and i'm so grateful for ALL their help!

today the new garage door was installed. in the case of the garage, where the roof is rotting and the gutters are falling off, this could be a case of "polishing the turd" but i'm still excited - wahoo!! : )

open floor plan

last weekend we finished taking down the old and putting up the new kitchen wall! it was uber exciting to see the finished product - i love the way it opens up the room and makes it look lots bigger. i think it's going to look SO good!!

here's my dad nailing the king stud to the 12' beam that will span the length of the room.

once we had the king studs attached, my mom and i stood on the saw horses and lifted the beam into place while my dad anchored the king studs and added the headers. (that thing was HEAVY!)

with the beam all snug in place, we could take the brace walls down.

the finished product! - the small section of wall in the left of the photo is where the fridge will be, then the breakfast bar will extend 6' out from there. the one 2x4 in the right side of the photo marks the corner of the pantry which will span the entire lengthe of the wall to the door.

woooooo-hooooooo! yippee for visual progress! : )

snow day...

yesterday we'd planned to rip out the front steps and repair the dry rot, but when we got to my house it was snowing buckets! so we changed the game plan and got to work on the inside.

last weekend we got rid of the rats nest that i found in the wall behind the hot water heater...

so now it's time to get to work on the kitchen wall.

this is the wall that we are taking out. basically what we're doing is building a new wall where the current opening is, and opening the section where the wall is now.

the wall does bear some weight, so we had to build a support wall on either side to hold up the ceiling until the new header and wall is in place...

brad, a friend of the family, came by and helped with the electrical. He removed all the outlets and light switches on this wall so we can take it out.

we had to take out the flooring where the new wall will be, and found this layer of funky linoleum...on top of a layer of fabulous parquet flooring...

there was also some amazing wallpaper behind the kitchen counter...