Discovery

Let's talk about the process of discovery.

All you lawyers out there can take this one off, it isn't that type of discovery.

We're cruising along. The sun is shining, it's a little warm and we are pulling of siding and trim. Gotta get it off, you know. There is a trim piece that goes between the siding and the skirting. As we move around the house, we might see something like this. 

Nothing too bad here.

 It looks like that most of the way around.Shouldn't be too bad.  Let's take that trim piece off and have a good look.

That looks less comforting.

Okay, so this looks a little worse.  Things are still mostly intact. There's still hope, right?

That rim joist doesn't look too solid.  What happens if we tap it with a hammer?

It's probably only a little surface problem, right? An eighth of an inch back, that's solid wood.

Errr...uh no. Not so much.

I guess we need to cut that wood out and see what's behind door number one Monty.

Serious tools of destruction. Don't laugh at the Harbor Freight.

Can't forget the good, old, hand tools. 

Let's investigate, shall we?

AHHHHH!!! Put it back!  PUT IT BACK!

Yeah, termites.

But not the bad kind.  Okay, so there isn't really a good kind, but not the worst kind.  These guys only really destroy rotten and wet wood.  Get rid of the wet wood and we are fine.

Easy, right?

Riiiiiiggghhhht.

I didn't take as many pictures here as I would like.  Mostly because I was in a life or death battle with a trillion little insects and didn't have time to fiddle around with a camera.  But, it turns out, this joist was right under the kitchen cabinets.

I'd been wondering if we would have to take them out.

Had been.

You see, this is how a simple project, like putting up new siding, changes into something much longer and more involved. Everything we remove seems to reveal more stuff we need to remove.

We kind of knew this going in though.  Oh well, can't be helped.

That's gotta come out.  Time to move some cabinets.

Good thing I have helpers!

Homeschool today is power tool usage in home demolition!

 Just think of the education these kids are getting. 

Again... Everything we take out reveals more work to do.

That can't be sanitary.

Let's just rip it all out.

So, there we are.

The kitchen looks much more open with half the cabinets gone and the sink pulled out.

So that's good. 

I guess there's a downside, but I can't see it yet.

More work tomorrow.