Destructo-rama

Okay, so it wasn't as destructive a weekend as we've had in the past. But it sounds good, doesn't it? Heh heh. Anyway, we got a lot done last week and over the weekend.

I cleaned the gutters, swept the roof, and pulled weeds. Whew.

I also pulled the siding off of the east side of the nook, where we replaced the window over the weekend so we can eventually put siding that side of the house. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.

So much happened, in fact, that I think I'll have to do several posts for this week. I'll save our adventures in wallpaper and the actual window installation for separate posts, because there are lots of pictures. The wallpaper is especially fun, but that's just what I think.

Anyway, when I was tearing off the old siding last Friday, I got to the bottom row and the crowbar just went IN. There was suddenly nothing to pry against. I finally get it off just to see that there was nothing there. No sheathing at all. Just the exposed foundations and the ends of the floor joists, just sitting directly on top of the foundation.



I wasn't aware of this, but that's apparently the way they used to do it. Go figure. We'll be finding a way to put sheathing over those exposed floor joist ends, though. Here's a closer look:



Anyway, it's a pretty scary-looking thing. It's bad enough it's on the side that I call "Spider Alley" (on account of the myriad webs built between our house and the fence), but it's classic "haunted house" material. Or, as my brother would say, it's a perfect "nightmare hole."

Assuming that the rest of the old portion of the house is the same way, it explains where all the wasps and assorted bee creatures have been trying to live since we moved in and have been hearing the buzzing. We found some old evidence, and so I imagine when we tear off the north side of the house, we'll see where all the little buggers were coming from the last two summers.



The next morning, the destruction continued with my spouse de-vegetating around our house. I went to a back appointment on Saturday morning only to return to a moving mass of green I could only assume was my husband. Okay, he wasn't that dirty, but almost. He had weed-whacked all around the house and taken the "front yard" down nice and short. I don't think I've ever seen the plants (read: weeds) in front of our house that orderly before. It looked nice.



He also de-thatched the lawn. Got so much grass up that it filled up our yard waste bin. Here's to a healthy lawn!



Up next: wallpaper and windows. Stay tuned!