The Beat Goes On...

...and the beat goes on, drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain...la de da de de, la de da de da. Can you name that tune? It seems like a good theme song for the beach this summer :)

Here is what the repair work looks like so far.

Yes, I said "so far". There is more to go. But before we talk about that - let's review and celebrate the successes to date!

1.

JohnMarth Inc. doing demo work.
In the end all but about 1/2 sheet of plywood was replaced. I love that he had a viewing gallery for the project!

2.

  New fascia in place and all joists replaced or sistered to new 2x6's.
BTW...no worries about Grandpa heading up the ladder; he was advising and helping from down below :)

3.

That is Kellen just finishing with the roofing shingles.  

4.

As soon as Kellen was packed up and on the road, we began the job of replacing the rotten wall and floor in the corner. But alas, what should we discover upon opening up this hole? Why extensive wood damage of course!

5.

With the discovery of the wood ravaging Powder Post Beetle we called in the professionals. Glenna, John and I packed up and emptied all 3 rooms before Bugman Gordon arrived. He sprayed every inch of wood - including all the wood furniture and wood handled tools we left inside.

It does not penetrate painted surfaces well - which is why you see it puddled up on the pink chair. But the flip side is the beetle doesn't like painted wood either.
Oh, I know WAY too much about Powder Post Beetles!

6.

Once the bug spray is dry, work on the wall and floor resumes.
I am standing in the (previously) rotten corner.
Notice anything missing in this picture?

7.

And what's missing in this picture?
Hint...I'm standing in the doorway to the back room.

8.

This was our 2nd trip to the dump...this weekend!
Daniel already made 2 trips a couple weeks ago. No one can accuse us of looking like the squatlies - Grandma will be happy!

And here are three pics of why at the top of this post I said the wall and floor repair is complete "so far". One side done...turns out there are a couple more to go!

After the repairs are complete all the new wood needs to be treated for bugs and then the whole place has to be painted inside and out to keep it standing for 50 more years! I sure hope we get this done before the rains start - yikes!

This is the back bedroom (the shelving unit is gone now) and you can see the far-reaching rot. The wall to the left of the door looks worse.

The outside landing is rotten all over...the plywood on the ground...the 2x4 framework and the 2x3 studs (ya, they really used 2x3's all over the place). John is surveying his options.

Just another angle of the landing. Take note of the 2x4 support in the bottom left corner of the pic...that is no longer supporting :/ At the top of the pic the 2x3's to the right of the door don't look like that anymore...John tapped them with a hammer to see how solid they were; they crumbled to pieces!

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Driftwood Update
Papa moved Ben's driftwood a little further out (I'll post pics next time - silly me forgot to get one!). It doesn't appear to float :) but it is getting water logged and that should help it break apart easier in the coming weeks.