Fireplace, Living Room Floor and Siding Removal

While I was occupied at High Tower, Mark and my brother, Tim, made great progress on the demo.  First came the fireplace.  Mark was determined to get the surround off.  It was a bear but he did it.

 Next came work on the floor in the living room.

The floor is quite warped and there is mold damage on the top layer of particle board (or whatever it is called) so we have to tear it up.  It is really a pain because it breaks apart instead of coming up in big sheets. When Mark doesn't have anything else to do or if he doesn't have a helper for the 2 person jobs he will plug away at getting these boards up.  Also, when he does get them loose they are super heavy so the hauling to the dumpster is a pain too!

Desiring a little time outside in the 90+ degree weather we decide to take the siding off the back.  Really what needs to be done is for the deck to come down so that the floor problem - it very slanted and uneven - can be corrected.  But we want to take the siding off while the deck is still there so we can stand on it instead of giant ladders.  Thus, Wednesday night (7/17) I took a break from my packing and the air conditioning to help tear off the siding on the back of the house.  It was actually a lot fun as it came off pretty easily and in long strips with many connected so we could see great progress very quickly.

Removing the First Section

The only problem was working around the "death trap" tree.  You see it in the picture above but what you can't see is:

the gaping hole that a human can fall through.  I gave a yank on the siding and stepped back just catching the edge and missing the hole!  It appears that a limb was trimmed and nothing was done about the space that the limb used to take up so if you want an "express" exit to the ground, you just have to jump.  I don't really recommend it!  I am lobbying for the tree to be cut down so we don't have to deal with it for the new deck.

Here's how it looked when we called it a night:

We didn't clean up the mess.  That is what kids are for.  We have a bit of room left in the dumpster which will be filled with this siding as well as the deck.

See the next posting for deck removal!