Termite Wall Framing

Hey folks!  I'm sorry I haven't posted in almost a week!!  Yes, I KNOW!!!!!!!  We were too busy working and I wasn't busy enough blogging.  My bad!  I've got a few posts lined up for this week, so start checking back again, k?

So we started wtih this.

Totally clear slab.  Then we went to Lowe's and got a butt-ton of cinder blocks.  Hubby had a steep learning curve in masonry, during which time the camera was banned.  He gets a little camera shy sometimes.

So he laid the blocks, and filled them with cement and the anchor bolts.

We busted out the work lamp and worked most nights this past week till 10.  We've also had a few chats with our neighbors.  They're all SUPER sweet, and none of them have minded yet.  I really hope they WILL come yell at us if we're too loud too late....  Anyway, back to the wall:

Add a couple top plates, a couple bottom plates, and some water&ice dam.

Add LOTS of lumber and VOILA!  It looks like a wall again! ...Mostly....

Hubs also found this.  More termite damage.

He got around to fixing it later that evening. 

Day 4.  Seriously.

It was cute the first few days.  Now we're tired of pulling made-overnight birds' nests from our temporary support.

Check back in tomorrow for the post about Moving The Temporary Support - a good time, I promise you.  Spoiler alert: we did NOT drop the 2x10s this time!!!  (We did the first time - it sucked.)

Point of No Return

We have, most definitely, hit the point of no return. The proof follows.

Before-ish.

Beginning of the middle.

Middle.

That silver stuff is what passed as house wrap, as nearly as we can tell.  It was probably like kitchen foil with a paper grocery bag backing.  Now it pretty much crumbles in our hands if we fold it. See all the gaps they left between sheets, too?  Fun stuff around our house...

We interrupt this broadcast to prolong the current "after" shots, and to nit-pick on other fun stuff we found.

Focus on the black parts.

This is half-done.  They should have started with black tar paper underneath, then put the sides over it, then put a top sheet overlapping both sides.  But no.  Of course not.  As with everything else in this house, it was half-assed.  Literally, this time.

Remember that spot I pointed out earlier and said "that's the siding"?  Here's the hole.

Daylight. :/

This is the last time you'll ever see this hole.

We now return to the regularly scheduled ending:

What it looks like now.

We are now taking bets as to how many times each of us walk in the door rather than just going through this gaping hole in the wall between now and the time it's rebuilt.  So far, we're at 1 each.

Bottom Plate Cleanup

Welcome back to another edition of What's Up At Krista's House.  Today's topic - termites, the bottom plate in the basement, and thank GOD for moms who buy the exact ShopVac that Hubs wanted!  Oh yeah - and thank goodness for DeWalt 1-hour battery chargers.   Have I mentioned that there are only FOUR working outlets in the basement now?  1 each for my freezer, washer, and dryer, plus one that has an extension cord in it - and we used it for the ShopVac last night.  So yeah.  9 o'clock last night, I held the flashlight, he vacuumed the bottom plate.  And I don't mean he cleaned it.  I mean he sucked the thing right up.

Poof!  Just like that:

Hubs took hold with his hand and pulled. (And set large chunks into yellow buckets.)

Then sucked up the crumbs.  Oh, and about 50 live termites, too.

Until the 3" ShopVac hose fit UNDER the studs.

The black part is the original (filthy) concrete.  See the 4" gap underneath??

How about  now?  Yup, let's get our nose dirty and really LOOK at this gap.

Check out that gold-ish yellow above-and-to-the-right of Hubs' hand.  That's the aluminum siding.  ... Yeah.

Ignore Hubs. Look at the outside corner there.  There's NOTHING under it.  Good thing Hubs has built that support wall already!!!

And lastly, I'll discuss this corner where that last pic was.  The left side of the photo is The Termite Wall.  Hubs really did suck up between 20 and 100 live termites, among other bugs.  But the wall that Hubs is actually focusing on in the last photo - that wall had absolutely ZERO termite damage.  It was 100% water rot.

See how this one has lots of channels and tunnels?  Termites.

See how this is solid-looking?  It was spongy!  And wet!  But no channels, no tunnels, no termites.

This is the final dump of the ShopVac, at 10pm.  He filled this  container THREE TIMES last night.

We also finally got Every Last Scrap of drywall and unnecessary studs out of the basement.  So after Hubs finished vacuuming up the bottom plate, he took a bleach solution to all the walls down there, in an effort to kill any remaining mold.  It smelled strongly of bleach, so we left the windows open overnight.  I went down this morning and it just smells like a regular basement for the first time since we moved in.  No mold.  No bleach.  Just...earthy.  I <3 my basement now!

Tonight is deck tearout, if the rain holds off.  Then Hubs can tear into the siding and Termite Wall and get pouring on the concrete curb he'll put in.  Stay tuned!!

Termites, mold, and mice...

Hello there!

Well, all my inspiration to start a blog came from the work we did this weekend, so I suppose we should get right to it, hm?  Project #1 is Operation Gut The Basement.  Hubs has been working on this slowly over the past year, and we've been storing all the junked materials down there as dumpsters are Not Cheap around here!  Well, we finally decided now's the time, so we bit the bullet and had a dumpster delivered Saturday morning.

Lil C and the HUGE dumpster

Lil C, our cat Meow-ers, and the HUGE dumpster

 Then it was MY job to fill THAT dumpster.  Eventually.  We expected to be able to demolish the entire basement, plus the exterior walls of the main level and throw it all in here.  Boy were we wrong!  But more on that in a minute.  First I have to prove to you that we (and by "we" I, of course, mean Hubs) actually DID something!

Before...

This is the southeast "bedroom" that was in our basement.  The rightmost door is out to the rest of the basement.  This view, now:

Middle...

There is no "After" yet.  When there is, I'll be sure to let you know.  How about we start over with the "Before", "Middle", and "After" sequences?  

Southeast corner of the house, basement, BEFORE

Concrete floor, green painted paneling, busted radiator covers...sounds homey to me!  NOT!  BTW, that's a sump pump hole in the corner.

Middle - See the mold?  How about the termite tunnels?

On the left of the busted-out part, we have termite tunnels running nearly halfway up the wall.  Yay.  But we hadn't found any actual termites, so we figured they were all gone.  That me MUCH less squeamish while cleaning up after them!  And there was plenty of mold in that corner, but once it's out, it's out!

Middle #2

Lack of mold.  Lack of termite tunnels.  But lots of insulation-turned-squirrel-bedding on the ground.  (Read: I didn't finish MY job yet.)

After

So there you have it - no ceiling, no more studs.  Those blocky bricks in the middle of the wall houses a flue that runs within the chimney.  The den upstairs (RIGHT above this) has a fireplace, and, well...they carried some of it down.

Close-up of the termite tunnels on the drywall

 Cuz I know you were all DYING to see it.

Mold on the insulation

Mold AND termite tunnels!

Hello?  Why did you all leave?  This is MY house after all!  Oh, I get it - y'all forgot your coveralls.  Ok, since this is the first day, I'll forgive you, but be sure to bring them next time or I'll dock your participation points.

After about 2 hours

This shows about 2 hours worth of work on my part.  And Hubs was busy doing everything you already saw.

Sunday morning's starting point

And this is after Hubs gave up waiting for me to clear him a path through his destruction, so he pitched in and helped me.  Sunday morning, we started with a half-full dumpster.  We've cleared out about 1/3 of the basement.  Doesn't really look like the main floor is gonna fit, does it?

Here are some miscellaneous "homeowner special" things we found.  

Bent drywall

 Ok, so I know it's really hard to see this, but I'm including it anyway.  Usually, floor joists (those boards running all the same way) are capped off by a sill plate.  Basically, that means that you shouldn't SEE this drywall at all (which is at the base of the front wall of the garage), much less should it be curved inward by almost 2 inches (the thickness of...*gasp* a SILL PLATE!) in order to be anchored to the joists.  The sill plate would have evened out the thickness of the wall, and given the drywall something to anchor to all the way across, not just at the joists.  Because, you end up with this:

View from the garage side. See the crack?

Genius!  Let's cut a squirrel-sized hole to run new piping!

Words fail me for this rad heat supply and return.

And for the grand finale, we have ACTIVE termites!!!  Can't you hear my enthusiasm for all the damage they've caused? This is looking down at the outer wall (to the left of that window you've hopefully noticed before now).  The sill plate (bottom flat board) is completely crumbling in Hubs' gloved hand.

The sill plate to the left isn't AS bad, but that's just because it's not AS wet.

There ya have it, folks!  Welcome to my world!  I'll take more pix and post more progress as we get it done!

To wrap this up on a non-termite note, please enjoy these pictures that I took at 6:00 this morning as I snuck in an hour of extra clearing-out after Hubs left for work and before Lil C woke up.

Again... totally thinkin' this is NOT going to all fit!!!

What a sunrise!!! I love the sun just barely touching the tree tops!