So, we last left our helpless heroine standing in her kitchen staring down a wall full of dry rot and old termite damage, while The Beloved Contractor was on the phone saying "If I were you, I wouldn't go upstairs over the kitchen. That wall's not really holding anything up."
No worries. The kids didn't need to be on the computers anyways. And we're not a 'jumping on the beds' kind of family, either.
Maurice and Louis arrived super early, and while the kids were still staggering through breakfast in their jammies, the men had made things safe again...
Take THAT, saggy wall!
Oh, the other fun thing:
The guys have had to go under the house, because our floor doesn't have joists. Just a few beams under the plywood. Certainly not enough to support a nice sturdy tile floor, that's for sure. Just to refresh the memories...
This hole is 4 feet square, and that beam across the middle is one that the guys put in to reinforce it. Until they went under the floor, we had "joists" every 4 feet. Not NEARLY enough.
But let's look up... way up... ("and I'll call Rusty" - Bonus points for recognizing that reference)
See our ceiling? EVERY TWELVE INCHES, people! Now *that* is over-engineering.
So, once the brace was in place, they were able to remove the window and old door. Because of the rot on the stud, new studs will be put in beside the old one, and that will move the large kitchen window a few inches to the south. Helps with my view, but may interfere with where the bar-height counter will have to go. There are a few inches of 'wiggle room', so I think they're dipping into that stash.
Then, to finish up, they just covered the gaping holes in the walls with plywood. It looks like we're ready for the hurricane. The windows are scheduled to arrive on Thursday afternoon.
As the guys were leaving, I mentioned that we'd not had power upstairs last night. I guess when they were shutting down power to do the demolition on Monday, they'd turned off a number of breakers, and then had only turned back on the ones that were labeled as 'necessary' in the scheme of things: Dryer, Master bedroom, furnace, garage, living room (TV is a necessity, right?). Poor Nate had to use a flashlight as a night-light. I'd suggested that he just go without a nightlight to toughen himself up, but that idea was NOT met with enthusiasm.
So after supper, Our Beloved Contractor came back over, and he and Ken were able to get power back to the kids' rooms, while his girls played with Kelly and Nate and the hamsters. He also was able to confirm that we did, in fact, have aluminum wiring in the house. Our house had been sold to us as "contains aluminum wiring', but our electrician couldn't believe it.
Tomorrow, the hole will be cut for the NEW kitchen window.
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