The Remodel, Day 2

Well, that was interesting!

We got out there earlier than yesterday, pulled into the drive and put on our game faces. We handed out tasks, pry bars, and water bottles to the boys and they quickly disappeared into the grass. Zorak started in on the last bit of the kitchen (where, yesterday, I had unearthed an alien rodent lair and immediately ran like a scalded cat, with the same look on my face as those women in horror flicks who find the bodies). I skirted the kitchen and began chipping trim off the living room, talking to myself, making silly faces, slipping off the scaffolding, and in general having a grand old morning. The trim off, I prepared to do the paneling (eyes wide, hands trembling with anticipation, here - this is exciting stuff). I pulled off the first piece of paneling and set it aside. Pulled off the second piece of paneling and inhaled sharply. Then I realized I'd just inhaled sharply, and did it again. Then I did the bolting cat thing again, trying very hard to sound calm as I mumbled (I had my hand over my mouth and mask), "HMY!! HMY Mew nob ooo cub n eeer ud lrk a' thid!" Fortunately, Zorak is fluent in most of the female languages, so he came in here to look at this.

After Zorak pulled down the black insulation and peeled back (or rather touched and then watched as they cascaded onto the floor) the crumbling chunks of drywall and pine needles, our home appeared to have nothing between the studs and the old external brick fascade but a thin, damp wall of sheetrock. *hiccough-y breathing and v-e-r-y s-l-o-w speech was about all we could manage* Where's the plywood? Where's the chicken wire? Where's the Tyvek (or a comparable brand name that would've been around when the house was built)? Heck, where are the black plastic trash bags? Work with us, here!!! Give us something! At one point, as we wallowed in the shock, Zorak actually said, "Well, I hear sheathing is nice in the fall, and looks good on the exterior..." *deep breath, but it's still that stuttery breath* Ok. I love you. I love you, too. This will be ok. Well, *&%#. *sigh* Yeah. But it will be okay. We'll just... have... to... adjust. NO! Wait, rip out that wall over there!

We scampered across the room like vagabond children demolishing a home in search of treasure. (Who knew Captain Kidd's treasure was actually just vapor barier?) We ripped off that paneling. The insulation is only partly black... the studs are dry... but CRAP, what is that stuff behind the studs?? *whine* It looks just like damp sheetrock, although on that side of the house it's in good shape - you know, for damp sheetrock.

Zorak mentioned that this may well be, as The Big Lebowski would say, "S*** we're not privvy to." However, he figured he might know someone who IS privvy. So, he called His Buddy Who Knows Stuff (BWKS) and asked him about it. Turns out BWKS has a house in Georgia that has the same thing. No, it's not sheetrock. It's some kind of gypsum vapor barrier. Look for tabs to create an air space. *Zorak looks* Yep. Sure enough.

Now, something did go horribly wrong on that other wall, but no, our Forever Home is not three short weeks from caving in on itself. It is not constructed of poorly laid thin brick stacked against drywall for an exterior finish. We are not going to have to pimp out cute cousins in order to pay for repairs. Life is still good, and we're making headway.

We handled it well, but I'm still not right after a scare like that, and that was at nine thirty this morning!

The rest of the day was busy, busy, busy. Zorak cut the water lines under the house and got water running to the back commode and sink. He rescued the kitchen from the alien colony, and then rescued me from the other dead body in the living room. When he decided to yank the toilet out of the bath, he broke out the reciprocating saw. High point! It is so much more impressive (and a whole lot less work) to just zip through those nasty nuts that bond your toilet to the floor (and seep rust, they do that, too). ZOOM, Ch'kunk, and up it comes! Same thing with the supply lines for the sink, and the ungainly vanity counter.

I pulled off 80% of the paneling in the living room and demolished the hall bathroom vanity. The trim, baseboards (and inadvertenly, most of the linoleum, which has bonded molecularly to the baseboards) are all off in there now, too. Tomorrow the rest of the paneling will come out of the living room and bathroom, as well as all the linoleum. Hopefully the tub will come out, too. And then the carpet comes up. That stuff is still damp a week and a half after it was shampooed! EW!

We were there a little over ten hours today, working for all but a brief lunch break and some time to enjoy the Fire Ring (we're burning much of the debris at this point - one of the perks of living in the boonies). Bush Hog Guy came today and did a great job - the difference is amazing, and the boys are ready to go explore The Meadow (now that they can tell there is one). The barn seems to have sprouted legs and grown. It looked more like a Hobbit Hole than a barn before the Bush Hog Guy came.

The boys had a wonderful day again today, and once again all were out before seven thirty tonight. They dragged hoses about, demolished baseboards, and even had a special outing across the recently uncovered meadow, with Daddy and the bbgun late in the afternoon. They swept the balcony of leaves and tossed old wood into piles. They enjoyed watching the bush hog in action (from the safety of the front porch). I had some great insights on them, and some cute quotes, but I'm really too tired to think of them.

In all, though, today was a good day. I'm not sure we made as much leeway as we'd hoped, but considering the two major surprises and the general logistics of little ones and their needs, we made a good road. Tomorrow we have one more big push, and then we get a day off on Tuesday for our ultrasound and midwife's appointment. It'll be difficult not to be working on the place, but that's a good excuse. ;-)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy