The Last Hurrah

Sure, we thought all demolition was done and we were on our way to getting the house finished.  And then we came up with yet another change, that unearthed a mass of problems.

There is a sun porch on the back of the house that connects the kitchen, garage, back deck and dining room.  It seems like it was added as an afterthought to connect the different spaces.  The roofline is weird.  None of the doors match (and there are 6 of them!) and the flooring has two different types of wood (we think one is fir and the other heart pine - and they will both be beautiful when they're finished! But the combo is quirky).

Great views of the backyard gardens

Doors to deck, dining room and kitchen

The room faces north and east.  It gets the first sun in the morning, making it bright and inviting for a first cup of coffee to start the day.  It's not big, but it looks out over the (soon to be) gardens and has lots of privacy.

This room has two phrases that cost lots of money in every renovation: 1) It has so much potential (seriously, how many times have I said that about a house? 😂. You would think I know that means trouble!). 2) While we are at it, we should just do this too.  You might as well start hearing the Jaws theme music with those two phrases, because it really means trouble. 

So while the drywall is getting installed in the rest of the house, the guys started changing the roofline to make it match the rest of the ell addition.  And sure enough, that's when we found problem #1 - Carpenter ants.  Lots and lots of carpenter ants had destroyed the corner of the room and they went scurrying far and wide as they pulled back the sheathing.  

Sigh.....carpenter ants.....again......they went scurrying away!

So needless to say, we had to investigate further.  And that's when we found the roof must have had a major leak at some point and the other corner was disintegrated from dry rot.

This disintegrated into dust when we opened it up

Sometimes, it's faster to just tear it apart and start over and that was true in this case.   

Farewell rot and ant damage!!

The guys quickly got it framed up with a roofline that matched the rest of the house. 

No big surprise, but the sill was rotted out as well

And while I love how it looks from the outside with the nice, consistent roofline -  once it was framed, we started to realize just how amazingly different the interior space had become.  With the tall cathedral ceiling, it feels like a totally different space.   The guys got electrical wrapped up last week - now it's on to getting some walls in!  Woo hoo - can't wait!!

Look at those tall ceilings!!!

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