We hired a contractor – the same company that built the garage for us – to tear off two 2nd floor exterior walls and bump one room out. The job will include two roof tear offs, rebuilding and tying a new roof line in with the existing, building a load-bearing wall, floor trusses, three windows, siding, and various hidden surprises along the way. All for a 4’x16’ extension on one room, which doesn’t sound like much but it will make a huge difference. The guys started Friday morning.
It didn't take long to find their first big surprise.
Paper wasp nest...hi-rise style.
It’s no one’s fault. The guys were trying to get a sill plate off and had to cut through with a sawzall which kept right on coming, through the plaster ceiling! The ceiling beams are not big enough or strong enough to become floor joists and will have to be rebuilt (oops, didn’t think about that before we started). We will have to screw the dining room ceiling to the new floor joists to hold it up and eventually tear out the dining room ceiling. And you know darn well that we may as well do it right and tear out the walls too and insulate while we are at it. Have I mentioned that the dining room walls and ceiling are made of the same stuff as the living room? Plaster and chicken wire. Falling on our heads. This sounds dangerous.
Dave’s been telling me that he really wants to gut the dining room for a while now. I twitch every time he says it. It’s the last room that we have not touched in the house. It needs to be insulated. He’s right, however I have been resistant. The memory of tearing out the living room walls has not faded. It’s heavy stuff and a bear to get off. If I were a suspicious wife I might suspect him of bribing someone on the job site this morning! Ah well, I’ve been ready to get rid of the wall paper in that room for a couple years now.
Contractors will return Monday morning.
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