Of joists and mud

The weather has been absolutely BALMY in the last two days: sunny, with temperatures in the 50s. But it wasn’t like that for most of the week, and I noticed the mercury on the wall thermometer inside the new house at a pleasant 33 degrees. I say “pleasant,” because I wear the full complement of Carhartts as I demolish, and it’s only a matter of minutes before I’m pretty comfortable. Working inside is kindof nice, watching the rain (and occasionally hail) fall outside, reminding me that warm is all relative… 33 can be pretty awful if you’re wet at the same time.

We’ve had a new discovery, too. Besides the rotten subfloor I mentioned in the last post, I’ve discovered that most of the floor joist have rotten ends from contact with the evil siding. They must come out, too. Ryan and I stewed upon the problem awhile, then he pointed out that it may cost a few hundred dollars and half a day’s work to replace them right now, but that’s WAY better than the time and expense to replace them in a few years when the house is all closed up. Good point. It gets me wondering when I’ll hit the point of diminishing returns and be better off burning the place down, but we’re still pretty far from that… the foundation is in excellent shape, and the roof/ walls appear sound too. We are nearly out of unknowns, which is reassuring.

Concerned about the soffit and roof structure, I pulled that off to discover that it’s in OK shape. The structure, I mean. The soffit is a total writeoff. Here’s a picture of the rats nests that were up there… ewww!

Wrecking stuff isn’t the only adventure in construction so far, either. I had the lumber yard deliver new joists, since they are 20 feet long and would not fit well in my 6′ pickup bed. The driveway is impassable without four wheel drive, so I had them unload at the edge of the property. Getting the plywood up to the house using my truck was fairly easy, but the joists required creative thinking. Carrying them by hand wasn’t an option; soaking wet and frozen from transit, they weighed about 80 pound apiece are were extremely awkward to handle. I ended up tying them in bundles of four with ratchet straps, tying a prusik around the end of them with a tow rope, and dragging them up the driveway with my truck. Worked great!